Every week here at link year is unique in it’s own way. This week, we were split up boys and girls
all week. The boys had ‘Manhood Week’
where they blew stuff up and smelled bad….ya know, basic man stuff. Meanwhile, we women dove deep in to the word
and learned what it means to be a biblical woman. We studied Proverbs 31:10-31 and analyzed the
character of the ‘Proverbs 31 Woman’. In
doing this, we were privileged to hear from several speakers about different
aspects of biblical womanhood.
On Tuesday, Angie Daniels talked about how our character can
enhance or taint our name. When we have
a strong reputation attached to our name, whether it is good or bad, what can
really make or break us is our character.
When you have already developed a negative name for yourself, and you
feed that reputation by maintaining a bad character, everyone knows that you
are evil. When you have a good
reputation, and you counteract that with bad character, people will see you as
a hypocrite. When you have a good name
attached to a bad character is deceptive.
However, when you have a good reputation, and you follow that up with
good character, there is much value to your life. People will look up to you and respect you
and give Glory to our Father in Heaven.
(Matt. 5:16) (Proverbs 22:1, 1 Corinthians 15:33) How are you representing your name?
Wednesday, we had the honor of hearing from one of the
wisest women I have ever known. Jennifer
(Reno) Farley came to talk to us about relationships. She led a bible study over the book of Esther
this summer when I worked at Kamp, and it was one of the most incredible
studies I have ever done. She is so full
of wisdom. Anyways… Relationships. Relationships are formed by God and
manipulated by the world. He designed
them. In fact, he created us to have
them. However, the world is notorious
for re-defining them.
Our most important relationship is between us and God. Every relationship we enter into will reflect
our relationship with God. There are four
reasons we know we are built for relationships.
1.
He built us with a capacity to be in a
relationship with him. (Genesis
1:26-27) We are made in his image, so
that we can be in a relationship with
him.
2.
He gives us life; a purpose and meaning. (John 6:51, 10:10, 15:4) True life is found in eternal life. We are simply branches, and he is a
tree. We cannot survive if we aren’t
rooted in Him.
3.
He asks us to extend our relationships to
others. (1 John 1:7) He shows himself
through our worldly relationships. When
we involve Him, he is faithful and supplies all that we need and more. We get our basis from him in order to pour it
out into our other relationships.
4.
He redeems us.
He has given us salvation.
Sometimes we feel like Satan is winning. He’s not. Genesis 3:15 is
God’s curse on the serpent just after Adam and Eve sin against Him. In man’s darkest moment, God tells Satan that
he is going to redeem us. He made up his
mind without a moment’s hesitation. He
knew that he was going to save us, because he loves us THAT much.
True and good
relationships bring life, and life to the fullest. True relationships point to true life. TO GOD.
Satan is tempting, but he only wants one thing for us. DEATH. Yes, it’s true. There is a 100% death rate here on
Earth. There’s really no avoiding that
one… However, when one is in Christ,
to die is only to be reunited with Christ.
The real death comes when we experience separation from God. He wants to remove us from our relationship
with Christ. That’s his only goal. That’s why he tempts us with so many
different distractions and idols in our lives.
God has our best interest in mind; Satan does not. Satan doesn’t care
what lie you believe as long as it is not the truth. God lets it happen so you can see his power
and learn about him.
Relationships affect us in one of two ways: They give us
life, or lead us to death. As
Christians, we are called to radiate life into all of our relationships. (Romans 11:33-36) Often times, our problems in our earthly
relationships come from our unbelief in the attributes of God we know to be
true. Friendships can lead to death when
they define you, or when they are centered on destructive things. Exclusive friendships show a lack of
dependency on God. Never let an earthly
relationship trump that which should be reserved for the King. Keep in mind;
YOU are your greatest enemy. If you can
get rid of yourself and fill up on God, you will live a fruitful life.
Today, we heard from Chantelle Mack. She taught us the difference between what we
are called to be in Proverbs 31 and the woman of folly in Proverbs 9. The woman of folly is loud, seductive, dumb,
a schemer, a liar, and has low standards.
A Proverbs 31 woman is trustworthy, faithful, strong, diligent, willing
to serve, confident, giving, well kept, and tactful. Even though these are the qualities described
of an excellent wife, we are called
to live this way now in preparation of the day when we will become a wife. We can’t just expect to live frivolously now
and expect to grow up all of a sudden when we get married. It’s important to set goals now because our
character now will overflow later in our lives.
Girls struggle with this because they let their emotions win
the best of them. It’s a matter of our
hearts. We are emotional beings, but we
can’t let our lives be ruled by our hearts.
We can control our hearts, but we must first learn what challenges our
hearts. This may be gossip, romances,
music, fashion, music; anything.
Being a Proverbs 31 woman is about glorifying the Lord by
living for his righteousness. This means
we can’t be ruled by our hearts. The
world says it’s okay to freak out every once in a while; they give us excuses
to let our emotions get the best of us.
WE CANNOT LET OUR LIVES BE RULED BY OUR HEARTS.
We have a higher standard than the norm of the world. We live for a greater purpose. We are called to submit everything to the
Lord. We are not living to learn; we are
learning to live. Putting these things
in to action at this stage of life will help us to grow into Godly women later
on down the road.
“Pray also for
me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make
known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in
chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” –Ephesians 6:19-20
No comments:
Post a Comment