Strengthening Women Ministries

Why were we chosen by God? Why did Jesus die for us? Were we chosen just so that we don’t have to go to hell when we die? No, God had a purpose in forgiving and saving sinners. I’d like to look at that purpose and how we can fulfill our God-given assignment as His precious children.

The short answer to why were were chosen is to glorify God. What does that mean – how do we bring Him glory? His Word gives us many ways that we can bring Him glory: we have the privilege of telling people about His Son, what He did for us on the cross, we serve Him by obeying Him, by living for Him (being busy about His business, building the kingdom). We are called to have self-control, enduring through trials, testings, and persecution. In doing this we are told to be thankful for everything, encouraging one another when we speak. We are also to correct and sometimes even rebuke one another, bearing our brothers and sisters burdens, at all times loving them and striving for unity. Wow, I don’t know about you but all this seems to be a tall order to me! That’s a lot, and quite frankly, some days seem to be packed full of just fighting my sinful nature every step of the way. Feeling overwhelmed – I know I am! But, we have a gracious and merciful Father who tells us that He requires all this of us, oh, and did I mention that we are to be perfect as He is perfect!

I am so very thankful that He doesn’t just say, “now, I’ve saved you, go and get busy doing all these things”. No, He knows we need help, that we can’t on our own live to bring Him glory. He has graciously given us His Spirit and His Word. He tells us in His word that He strengthens us with the surpassing greatness of His power, the power that was used to raise His Son from the dead! He tells us in His word that He loves us with a love that surpasses knowledge! He tells us that He is in control of all things and that He will be exalted among the nations! So, we can relax a little – we aren’t in this on our own. But we must be in the Word consistently.

We have got to have the encouragement, hope, and joy that we find in the Word of God. We need to be reminded that though we sin He still loves us and is always ready to forgive us, pick us up, dust us off, and take our hand, expecting repentance. We must be reminded that though we have this momentary light affliction, there is an eternal resting place that will far outweigh all that we will suffer here.

Those of us who are “Marthas” need to constantly remind ourselves that there is no greater joy than being with Him. Our flesh keeps running after our husbands, children, hobbies, jobs, and ministries to find joy, and despite the fact that we find time after time that all of these “joys” will let us down – that this is not where true and everlasting joy is found, we keep looking to them. We have to keep having this talk with ourselves – our Creator and Redeemer is our greatest need and satisfaction. And, being with Him is the only way to fulfill our purpose here – to bring Him glory with all our being.

I am passionate about our spiritual disciplines. First, the Word of God helps me to know the One who loves me more than anyone. Second, He has used His precious words to take a rank pagan who loved sin to one who loves Him and hopefully becomes more like His Son with each passing year.

We can’t go on, as Matt says, “being blind to our blindness’s”; We need the Word of God to point our sin out to us and then lead us to our High Priest who faithfully bore that very sin upon Himself. Most of us believe that since we are Christians we are free from sin’s enslaving power, yet we still carry the presence of sin. But in our heart of hearts, we can easily think of ourselves as really being pretty good. There is always someone to point to who looks a lot worse than we do, right? However, should we sit back, content with who we are, or should we press on to become more Christ-like? I believe that Jesus would have us press on, hard work though it may be. We have to be willing to look at what we don’t want to see and, heaven forbid, let others see. I don’t know about you, but I can go around being very happy to pat myself on the back thinking, wow I am sooo much better than I used to be. But then, I read the Bible and God shows me the sin that I must continue to put off.

2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

Ladies, we must train our minds and our hearts to look at our own sin rather than the sin of others. I was reading a blog the other day that was talking about how we, as wives, would rather point the finger at our husbands; after all, their sin is worse, right? Well to us anyway! And those of you who are single, the person whose sin is glaring to you. What we should be doing, sisters, is pointing the finger, first, at our own sin. We aren’t their Holy Spirit no matter how much we think that we are. And furthermore, despite popular belief, God does not need our help! I am not saying that from time to time, carefully choosing what we should point out,and how we should point it out, that we can’t confront our husbands/friends/family members (go easy ladies – we don’t want them confronting us on every little thing). But, I am saying that we will not be judged for their sin but for ours, therefore, our focus should be our sin that we will be judged for.

“A gospel that does not confront sin is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.” – John MacAuthur