This past week in my newsfeed there have been many comments and posts relating to the protests and women’s march. I simply read one article containing the transcript of one of the women who spoke and it was enough to break my heart. If you do not think ministry to women, youth, and children is important then watch just a little of this and you will hopefully understand exactly how important it is.
I could cringe at these women and say how disgusting their words are, but the truth is I used to speak just like them. It’s a good thing that the Lord captured my heart before I was introduced to the world of social media or followed through on that journalism degree. I felt the sting of second class citizenry to the point that when I found out the child I was carrying within my womb was a girl, I left the ultrasound room in tears. My husband was dumbfounded.
Why was I in tears? All I could see was the statistics that 1 in 3 women would be raped or molested in their lifetime. All I could see was years of condemnation that she would endure due to the size of her waistline and the label on her clothes. All I could see was the fear on her face when she once again had to walk through the school and call her parents to come and get her because her menstrual cycle had ruined her clothes. All I could see was her not being strong enough to fight off an attacker. All I could see was the hurt she would endure simply because she was a girl. I wanted a chance to raise a boy that would protect girls… not a girl that would be hurt by them. Yet, God gave me girls.
If you have read my book Devotions From Genesis It’s Not Just Ancient History then you have heard me share how as I was reading through the Bible for the very first time I grew quite angry with this God I was trying to get to know. I struggled through Lot’s decision to throw his virgin daughters to an angry horny mob of men but when I read of the concubine in the book of Judges I closed my Bible and told God that if this is really how He viewed me as a woman I wanted nothing more to do with Him. Yet God is quite stubborn and His Spirit quite persistent and so I picked up the Bible again after a week or so and I am so glad that I did… because I found my life in Him.
As I continued to read, the Spirit of God taught me and wrapped up my heart and bound my wounds. The Word of God held me as He worked me through the Psalms and taught me of my intrinsic value and worth. He spoke words of love and adoring favor in my heart as my eyes read of His true feelings and devotion for me. He began to teach me of the great gift of womanhood. I went from believing that being born a woman was a curse to knowing instead that it was indeed a blessing with great honor and privilege. One so much so that the serpent of old had a target on my back just because I was a woman. I began to learn that men were not the enemy… Satan was.
Today as a woman we can listen to the women shouting in the microphone of the world or we can choose instead to listen to the women praying in the Word… Today, as a woman, I choose Hannah.
“My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord, indeed, there is no one besides You, nor is there any rock like our God. Boast no more so very proudly, do not let arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble gird on strength.”
~ Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-2, NASB)
Hannah felt the sting of second class citizenry. She knew it well. She also felt the sting of bitterness and oppression from other women. Even here as a mature believer I have watched the words of women sting other women. I have seen posts of Christian women demeaning and calling for the crucifixion of other Christian women and the stepping down of pastors of a church simply because they allowed a godly woman to share the Word of God in their pulpit when men were in the room… GASP!
I myself have taught the Word of God before and have had boys older than twelve told to leave the room because I had no right or authority to teach them as a woman. To this very day I step into a pulpit to teach with great caution because I know that the hearts of many, women included, think I have no right to stand there simply because God in His sovereign will chose to knit me, His servant, His beloved, in the womb as a woman. I can’t help but find it quite sad that God shows in His Word that a man can be taught by a donkey… but so many think a man can’t be taught by a woman. I am thankful that I was raised by a man who saw my value, my worth, and yes, my Holy Spirit given gift of teaching the Word.
So as a woman, I could grab a microphone and shout and spew venom or I can take a knee. I can bow before the One who created me woman and I can humble myself and trust Him.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him…
Philippians 2:5-9
Hannah humbled herself and it was God who exalted her. She didn’t look to man to exalt her. She didn’t look to other women to exalt her. She didn’t look to the world to exalt her. No, she humbled herself under the mighty hand of her God and she poured her complaint to Him and then she trusted Him with the results. She remained humble and kind. The words of her mouth and the mediation of her heart were pleasing to God. Hannah didn’t get nasty… she got holy.
Ladies, having gone from a hard core feminist mindset to a sold out biblical womanhood advocate let me tell you that Jesus is the real deal. He is the One, the only One, that truly sets you free. In and through Him I have learned what it means to be a woman. I have learned that the prayers of a godly woman move mountains. I have learned that He is my strength, my defender, my voice, my Lord and my God.
Therefore, let us become women of God whose hearts exult in Him and whose mouths declare His praise. May the words of our mouth be filled with the knowledge of God and flow out from a humble heart so that the weak may be made strong in the Lord and the hurting might find hope in Him. May God be able to use our prayers, our words, and our actions to show others the way to Jesus.