Strong Women: May we know them. May we raise them. May we be them.
We live with less power than we have available to us. We can gain access to that power by continuing to learn who we are in Christ and then applying what we learn to how we live.
Beth Moore has said, “We can know so much more than we know”.
Women are important to God and He has a purpose for each of us and wants us to know Him more fully.
We have all experience closed doors and open doors in our life. That is God’s way of leading us. God has a plan for each of us.
11 In him we were also chosen,[a] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:11-12 (NIV)
God chose us and it is through Him that we find out who we are and what our purpose is. He knew us before we knew Him and had plans for us that would give us hope and joy. He will work all things together for His overall purpose and His glory.
Paul during his 1st missionary trip was enjoying success. And then he looked to the north, south, and east but had road blocks. Those closed doors led to an open door in the west. Lydia was there and responded to Paul’s message.
Max Lucado wrote “Is Lydia the reason the Holy Spirit blocked Paul’s path? Was God ready to highlight the value of his daughters? Perhaps. In a culture that enslaved and degraded women, God elevated them to salvation coheirs with men. Proof? The first person in the Western world to receive the Christian promise or host a Christian missionary was a female.”
We are all loved and valued by a gracious God that wants us to know that we are loved. The more we learn about God and draw closer to God, the more we will realize the love He has for us.
Jack Hayford says that those who answer Christ’s call are the freed. The freed then become the freers.
He writes, “Christ’s light seem to penetrate gradually. Boldness does not come quickly, but only as the freed learn the truth. Ongoing patterns of discovery, then, are needful–a constant challenging of old patterns of thought through growth in the truth. Ignorance is rampant, even among the enlightened. Bondage straps minds, even among the freed. There are power-releasing truths to be discovered. Truths which will become implemented as keys, as the freed become the freers.”
When we realize what we have in Christ, we need to share it with those that need it. It is something that we should desire for everyone. It is by this process that we can take back ground that was once ours that Satan has stolen from us.
God is working. There is power within reach and if we continue to desire to have more of God in our life, we will see that power work. He won’t just give it to us. God wants us to have it but we have to want it, ask for it and seek it.