New Release Highlights How to Find Freedom from Approval Seeking

FAITH NEWS SERVICE – “When our happiness in life is tied to the approval of others, we are trapped but may not know it. Approval is an attempt by the flesh to fill up our God-given need for worth,” says Mark Maulding, president and founder of Grace Life International.[1]

While serving as a pastor’s wife, Bible study teacher, and women’s ministry director, Cheryl Pelton Lutz found her identity in the approval of others for many years. She says, “The endless striving brought me to a place of complete spiritual, physical, and emotional exhaustion. I was not living as one who was secure in my heavenly Father’s love. I had made people an idol.”

In a new release, Securely Held: Finding Significance and Security in the Shelter of God’s Embrace (Redemption Press), Lutz, the founder of Securely Held Ministries LLC, outlines her journey to finding significance and worth in God. She says, “Exhaustion from continual striving is an epidemic in our culture.

“As Christians, we desire to be known for our love of God and service to our neighbors. But when we allow the admiration of others to define us, we end up in a debilitating cycle of people pleasing, yet never find the validation we desperately seek.”

Lutz uses her personal story in Securely Held to show women how to discover their value and find rest in the arms of your loving heavenly Father, and how to learn to live as one accepted by God through the finished work of Christ.

Solid Bible-based teaching, and the testimonies of other women who have found their identity in God, provide a scriptural and experiential foundation and add depth and value to this new release.

• [1] Grace Life International, “Are You Being Controlled By The Approval Trap?,” www. Gracelifeinternational.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cheryl Pelton Lutz is a Light University-certified biblical counselor, a trained and seasoned Bible teacher, and an inspirational speaker. A retired pastor’s wife, she is a contributing author to the She Writes for Him: Stories of Living Hope compilation. Through her blog, newsletter, books, and speaking engagements, Cheryl equips women to overcome insecurity and people pleasing and discover their true identity as God’s daughters. She and her husband Alan have four adult children and a bonus son by marriage, and live in a quaint cabin in the North Georgia mountains. She enjoys spending time with her adult children and traveling and hiking with her husband.

For interviews, please contact: Cheryl@CherylLutz.com

Social Media Links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cheryl.p.lutz (Cheryl Pelton Lutz) Facebook Professional Page(s): www.facebook.com/securelyheld (Securely Held)

Twitter: www.twitter.com/@clutz40 (Cheryl Pelton Lutz)

Instagram: www.instagram.com/securelyheld_ministries/ (Cheryl Lutz)

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/clutz40 (Cheryl Lutz)

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-lutz-31755b58 (Cheryl Lutz)

YouTube: https://shorturl.at/hrDK1 (Cheryl Lutz, Securely Held)

Suggested Interview Questions

1. You say you made others your idols. What are some indications that we are making others our idols?
2. You mention some of your core issues had to do with your complex relationship with your father. How did your father issues manifest in your relationship with God?
3. Why do you think people pleasing is “epidemic,” as you say, in Christian circles?
4. Is there a special scripture verse that you were guided by in the writing of this book?
5. While you blog, have written for compilations, and teach the Bible, what was the process like writing a book on this subject?
6. Tell us about your ministry, Securely Held.