For the Ladies

How many lies have you been told about your womanhood?

"You aren't worth it. You aren't beautiful. You don't play a significant role in anything. You aren't fun. You aren't spontaneous. No one wants you. etc"

The enemy makes persistent attacks on woman. Look at your life, look at the world, look at what (in the world) is expected of women. If you aren't stick-thin with air brushed skin and perfect hair, and you don't party and keep up a busy life but at the same time keep the home in order, then you aren't "good" at being a woman. Lets even look at the church and what the church expects of women... You have to be conservative and quiet, always submitting to men (which I agree with, I'll do a post on submission soon), being a part of PTA, a home-group leader, a middle school leader, and have the ultimate servants heart, then you are "bad" at being a woman. Satan makes attacks on what God made womanhood to be, because true womanhood is a threat to him.

Taking a step back and looking at the creation story is important. God created man before woman. Woman was created after man. (If you're a man and you're reading this, then try to keep an open mind) In the creation story God makes man, then he says "It is not good for man to be alone" and searches for a suitable helper for man ("helper" in hebrew is ezer kenegdo) but God can't find an ezer kenegdo for man throughout everything he created. So God created woman. This next part is important:

After woman was created, God stopped. Woman is the last thing that God made in the creation story. You as a woman are the thing that made everything else fall into place. You're what made creation complete. You are ezer kenegdo. Do you know that the only other "helper" in the Bible that is called ezer kenegdo in Hebrew is God himself? (Genesis 2 for woman and Psalm 121 for God) -- (Don't get me wrong here. I am by no means trying to say we're God!!) God created woman with a softness and gentleness that he possesses. God created woman with a gentle strength that he possesses. God created woman with a soft heart but strong spirit.

Look at the women that are part of the stories of the Bible. Look how strong Mary was, look how brave the judge Deborah was, look at how patient Ruth was.

Bathsheba, an adulterous woman who let her husband get killed in battle because she was impregnated by another man, King David (who was the only man in the Bible who was said to be "a man after Gods own heart" ... If that doesn't show that our actions don't dictate our goodness, I don't know what will!) is part of the lineage of Jesus. There was something about Bathsheba that was strong and good enough to be a part of the lineage of Jesus.

Nothing that you have done or will do is going to change the way God thinks about you. Just like nothing that Bathsheba did had an affect on the way God thought about her. He loves.

Here are some truths to what you are as a woman:
You are the crown of creation, you are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139), you are known personally and intimately (Ps 139), you are loved with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3), you are ezer kenegdo (Gen 2), you are pursued (Hos 2), you are redeemed (Is 43:1), you are complete in Christ, you are going to play a significant role in an important story. You are worth it.