Books and Bible Studies by Barb Raveling
Philippians is the second book in my Closer to God Bible study series. It will be out on April 9, 2024. This is a practical, hands-on, life-application Bible study. Each of the sixteen lessons can be used to work through something that’s going on in your life right now. It might be a temptation, a trial, a relationship struggle, a work situation, or something small that just happened yesterday! The thought-provoking questions in the study will help you gain clarity, insight, a biblical perspective, and an action plan as you visit with God about how to handle that situation.
Say Goodbye to Emotional Eating So often women tell me, I know I need to renew my mind to lose weight and keep it off, but I can’t make myself do it! This is the book that will help you do it! It contains 70 pages of practical tips and insights to help to break free from emotional eating and 200 pages of renewing exercises. As you write your answers to the exercises in the book, you’ll find your desires changing—and that will help you say goodbye to emotional eating!
James is the perfect study for someone who wants to grow closer to God. Each of the 20 lessons includes questions you can use to apply that day’s Bible passage to something that’s going on in your life right now. Topics include comparison, anger, trials, temptation, envy, spiritual attack, taking risks for God, and making God first. The study is application-oriented, and each lesson includes prayer suggestions to encourage you to visit with God about life.
Freedom from Procrastination is a 5-week Bible study/workbook/planner combo. Each week includes a Bible study, practical tips to help you stop procrastinating, and daily to-do lists and charts to help you practice what you learn while you’re doing the study. It also includes 36 renewing worksheets to help you follow through with your to-do list when you’re thinking things like, This job is too boring, I’ll do it later, and This is too hard, I can’t do it!
Rally: A Personal Growth Bible Study is an 8-lesson Bible study on how to go to God for help with trials in a way that will make you grow. It gives you a process you can use when you’re going through a trial to help you live joyfully in the midst of that trial and also gain wisdom in how to handle the trial. This is also the best book to help you learn how to truth journal.
The Renewing of the Mind Project will help you change those things in your life you really want to change, but feel like you can’t change because you’ve failed so many times in the past. Here are a few examples of projects you can work on: breaking a habit, starting a habit, losing weight, letting go of negative emotions (such as worry, anger, insecurity, discontentment, etc), or following through on a goal you’d like to accomplish. The book includes worksheets to help you set up your project, tips for how to follow through on your project, and 48 sets of questions and 250+ Bible verses you can use over and over again to renew your mind when you feel like there’s no way you’ll be able to change. This book isn’t a Bible study but it still works well with as a group study. Click here for a leader’s guide.
Taste for Truth: A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study is a 30-day Bible study focused on the lies that make you eat, body image, and the weight loss process. I wrote this Bible study to go along with the questions and Bible verses in I Deserve a Donut, and it’s best if you have both books when you do this study. People often ask me if it’s better to start with Taste for Truth or Freedom from Emotional Eating. If you struggle with emotional eating or entitlement eating (I should be able to eat what I want when I want!), I would probably start with Freedom from Emotional Eating but either one is okay to start with. Some people even switch back and forth between the two books, which also works.
I Deserve a Donut (And Other Lies That Make You Eat) is a renewing of the mind resource to use in the midst of temptation and also to prepare yourself for temptation. It is filled with 36 sets of questions and over 150 Bible verses that you can use to have conversations with God about life and food. The questions and Bible verses will help you renew your mind, taking off the lies that make you eat and putting on the truth that will set you free. It’s also available as an app.
Freedom from Emotional Eating: A Weight Loss Bible Study is a 40-lesson Bible study that will help you break free from emotional eating. It begins with a chapter on Because most of the book is devoted to learning how to let go of negative emotions that make you overeat, people who don’t struggle with weight loss can also be helped by this study. The comment I get most often with this book is that yes, it helped me with eating, but it helped me even more with letting go of my negative emotions.
Note: All of these Bible studies can be done at home alone or with a group. If you’d like to do them with a group, check here for leader’s guides.