Leading the Women’s Bible Study at The Cove, Patty Stump invites women to explore what it means to live as Kingdom citizens.
A Bible teacher and licensed counselor, Patty Stump is known for her Scripture-rich teaching and insight, shaped by decades of walking alongside women in their journey of life. In this Q&A, she reflects on the women who shaped her own walk, the healing and hope found in God’s Word amid brokenness, and the refining work of the Master Potter in lives fully surrendered to Him.
Q: Your ministry emphasizes intimacy with God. What first stirred your passion to help women grow deeper in their walk with the Lord?
A: I love walking alongside women and hearing their stories. God has formed and fashioned women with an incredible ability to persevere amidst trials, find joy amidst sorrow, love despite deep wounds, and find something good in even the leanest of circumstances. And as we do life alongside one another, we are able to run the race God has put before each of us with a bit more stamina, hope, and spiritual focus. God works through the lives of women to deeply impact those around them.
As I reflect upon my spiritual journey, I’m grateful for the women of faith God has worked through to draw me unto Himself. Growing up, my little Aunt Gladys had a significant impact on my life. She played spiritual melodies on her slightly out of tune upright piano and sang of the friend she had in Jesus; her joy was captivating! In turn, her life pointed me to God. Then in my early twenties—which was a significant crossroad in my journey—God raised up a discerning woman of faith who repeatedly challenged me to ‘step out of the boat’ (Matthew 14:29) and heed God’s call. Her bold faith pointed me to Him. Lastly, a few years later while serving as the assistant dean of women at a Bible college, a colleague who had walked with the Lord for over 60 years modeled an unwavering trust as she took God at His Word in all things. Her life also pointed me to Him.
God used these women—and countless others—to introduce me to Him over and over again. They helped strengthen my walk of faith and upheld me when weariness and discouragement loomed large.
The Lord continues to cultivate within me a deep desire to strengthen and encourage women in their walks; that they too might live lives that bring God glory and point others to Him. 2 Corinthians 2:14 speaks of the ‘sweet aroma of Christ’ that goes forth. How beautifully this captures the essence of women who are walking in His ways and, in turn, pointing others to Jesus Christ.
Q: As both a Bible teacher and licensed counselor, how do you see Scripture bringing healing to the emotional and spiritual wounds many women carry
A: In this fallen world, we will indeed experience pain, disappointments, and worldly wounds (John 16:33). In our humanity, we can be inclined to hold onto the pain, memories, and wrongs done to us and cry ‘foul.’ This is a place where we can become stuck, stagnant, embittered towards God, and even void of hope and doubtful of His love. However, the realities of woundedness, pain, and suffering are also the places where we can experience our deepest encounters with God; if we’ll choose to look to Him, invite Him into whatever we are facing, and hold fast to His Word even when we feel as if we’re barely hanging on (Philippians 2:16).
I can testify to God’s faithfulness to do what He declares in Psalm 147:3: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Like many of you, my life has included some heartbreaking and faith-shaking realities, with wounds that left their mark. If I focus on these realities through my own lens of life, I will become heavy laden and allow hurt to hold my heart hostage and overshadow spiritual stamina and wellbeing. I’m well aware that in turn I’ll experience what I refer to as “a quick trip to the pit.” Satan delights in distracting us from God and the His Word; desiring instead for us to doubt and distance the very One who desires to provide us with hope and healing through Christ. And when we shift our focus from God to something else, just as Eve did, we will characteristically lose our spiritual sure-footedness and stamina.
Isaiah 55 reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways; throughout His Word, we see sin and wrongdoing which results in pain and suffering. But the Lord meets us in the places of darkness and desperation, emptiness and emotional woundedness. The Lord does all He has said He will do; God redeems and bring forth something good. But God will do it in His ways and in His timing, and ultimately to accomplish His divine purposes in and through our lives.
So, whether it’s in counseling, Bible studies, or in my own faith journey, the essentials are the same: Take God at His Word, trust Him to do what He has promised He will do (Proverbs 3:5-6), keep a fixed focus on Him (Hebrews 12:1-2; Isaiah 26:3), and praise Him even in the midst of the storm, knowing that He is with you (Deuteronomy 31:6) and will indeed work all things together for your good and His glory (Romans 8:28).
Q: You often speak about God as the Master Potter shaping our lives. How has the Lord used that imagery in your own story and spiritual growth?
A: Because of the Fall, we’re all ‘cracked pots’ in some regards; marred, broken, imperfect. These adjectives certainly pertain to my life. However, there is a greater reality and truth; that despite being broken and ‘marred’ as Jeremiah 18:4 states, God takes what is broken and forms it afresh into a vessel He that can use.
As the Master Potter, He presses and pinches, pounds, and reshapes us as we place ourselves in His transformative grip of grace. Ephesians 2:10 declares: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Just as broken pieces of pottery can be repurposed, God continues to shape me to be a vessel He can use as I place my marred and fallen, redeemed and repurposed, life in His hands.
The Lord continues to smooth my rough edges, tend to broken pieces, strengthen me in His refining fire, and purify me where spiritual slippage or sin have left their mark. And in His formative hands, His redemptive touch reiterates His promise in Philippians 1:6 that the good work He has begun in me, He will indeed complete it! Why? Because of who He is: faithful to His Word; loving, good, kind, redemptive, and intimately aware that each of us are but dust (Psalm 103).
The shaping and refining God desires to do in our lives comes as we daily yield to Him in our thoughts, heart, priorities, and relationships. 2 Timothy 2:21 states that He is able to form us to be “…vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.” I can attest to the reality that God is able to take what is broken, marred, and of little value and bring forth something that is redeemed, valuable, and miraculously bears His image as He puts it to use.
Q: For someone attending your event at The Cove for the first time, what do you hope they experience, discover, or take home with them spiritually?
Guests at The Cove often mention the peace they feel as they drive through the entrance of The Cove. God has undeniably set The Cove apart for His lifechanging purposes. At the 1993 Cove dedication, Mr. Graham expressed his hope that The Cove would be a place for “Instruction, Inspiration, Impact, and Intercession.” Ruth expressed her desire for The Cove to provide “Relaxation, Refreshment, Retreat, and Renewal.” I hope individuals will experience aspects of each of these as well as deepened intimacy with God as they draw near to Him through fellowship, worship, the beautiful scenery, and the study of His Word.
God’s Word is powerful, practical, and so personal. It is my desire that women will encounter Him afresh in ways that deepen their love for Him, their trust in Him, their delight in Him, and their passion and pursuit to live lives that bring Him glory!
It is also my hope that as we press into God’s Word together, that He will open our eyes to behold spiritual realities that infuse us afresh to walk out being Kingdom citizens on earth who are blessed to be called His children and to point others to Him; a high calling indeed!
Are you longing to draw closer to God through His Word? Join Patty Stump on Jan. 6 at The Cove for the Women’s Bible Study – Once Upon a Mountaintop: The Blessedness of Living as Kingdom Citizens. Find more upcoming events in the new year at TheCove.org/events.