GODLY WOMAN (IDENTITY IN CHRIST . PART 2)

For this blog post I want to focus on becoming Godly Women. This was the recent topic of discussion within my "Godly Women" bible study. As mentioned in one of my previous post, it is so important to look for identities in the one person who matters, the one who created us, Christ. Throughout the Bible, we have so many beautiful godly woman to learn from, woman like Esther, Ruth, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Rachel, Hannah, Deborah, and many more like them. The bible has a lot to say about becoming more godly, I am going to elaborate on a few characteristics that stand out.

Becoming a Proverbs 31 woman and more...

1. A godly woman fears the Lord

Damn, I can't tell you how often I focus on what everyone thinks of me, instead of striving to be someone that the Lord is proud of. We are constantly focusing on how we can please people, but God is the ultimate judge, do we realize that?

2. She Speaks and Behaves Wisely

We need to remember that our words have the power over life and death. Our words have meaning and purpose, we need to start using our words to build people up and not break them down.

3. She Helps to Guide Younger Women into Godliness Themselves

Leading by example helps to inspire girls. We are called, as Christians, to make disciples who make disciples. We are called to lead with love, to bring people to the feet of Jesus.

4. She does not behave foolishly

Who wants to follow a foolish leader? Most definitely not me. We have to act and behave in order to lead and teach women the correct way. If you are living a life of partying, drinking, drugs, and sleeping around, you are not leading by a good example. We need to begin to lead by example. Your life needs to be centered on God and should reflect it.

5. She Keeps an Inner Beauty

We can get so caught up sometimes on our outer appearances... yes, looking after yourself is great, but we tend to start doing this for everyone else. We want the perfect body, the perfect hair, the perfect life just so that others can see it. We should be focusing as much attention, or even more, on our inner beauty, on becoming beautiful souls. Being beautiful on the inside can make you 100 x more attractive on the outside. The same can be said the other way around, if you are ugly on the inside, you become ugly on the outside. We also need to focus on our healing and our growth. We need to make our hearts a priority. And no, I am not talking about your hearts desires, we've been through this, our hearts don't always want the best for us. But we need to focus on aligning our hearts and minds with God's word.

6. She is hard-working

I am not saying you have to wake up at midnight every night, but work your booty off for the Lord. Do everything to his glory. Work hard so that you can one day provide for your families, and if you have a family, then work hard to become the best you can be and to thrive. Growing, glowing and owning YOU. God gives us all different gifts and we need to use those gifts to his glory. By working hard, you are living by example.

7. She knows that God is for her and not against her

You guys, Deborah in the Bible led an army, she kicked some butt! But before her victory she thanked God for it and gave him all the glory. She trusted in him to win the battle and she did. She began by first recognizing that God was for her. We tend to think that our problems are greater than they appear, but when we give it to God, He carries our yokes and removes those heavy burdens.

8. She is faithful and supports other believers

Ruth was and still is a model of godliness for women to follow, she was loyal to God. She trusted him in all things and we should do the same.

9. She has faith that Jesus can do anything

Did you say anything? Anything! He is the creator of the universe, who are we to believe He isn't capable of doing the impossible? There is a verse that says, "Faith as big as a mustard-seed can move mountains." I think a lot of us, including me, are still trying to fix our problems on our own. I saw a video the other day and this guy said, "Why do we keep on falling into the same sin?" and came to a very clear and powerful point... it is because we are still leaning on our own strength to fix ourselves. We don't want to hand it over to God. Why is that? We need to have faith!

10. She is always available and ready to be used by God

Mary never understood how she could become pregnant with God's son, but decided to have faith and believe in the message. She was willing to be used even though her understanding was minimal. Sometimes we have no idea why God is moving us into a certain direction, or putting us into a season, but we need to trust in Him. He knows exactly what we need.

11. She remains dedicated to the things of God

Many times life can become busy and we become distracted. We drift from God's presence. Working on a relationship with Him is a daily habit that you need to build. We need to continuously walk in God's light no matter how busy or hectic our lives get.

12. She helps to care for those who spread the Gospel

By helping God's people, you are helping him and serving him. Even Jesus came to serve and not to be served. He cared for those who followed Him and those who followed also cared for Him when He needed it.

13. She Lives Out Her Faith for Jesus

By living our lives out in Faith, we open windows for others to see his glory and power through us. We allow God's light to shine through us. By living out our faith through Jesus we also grow closer to Him and our relationship with Him becomes so much stronger. When I was spending nearly every second with Jesus and in the Word of God, I felt different, I felt the change. When I stopped, I felt the distance. I don't want to feel like that again. I am sure many of you reading this can relate to the feeling of drifting from Him... it is such a sucky feeling.

14. She Relies on God, Even Through Hard Times

I read this quote that said, "Dear Lord, help me to remember that I need you just as much on my good days, as I do on my bad days." But our difficult times are when we struggle the most to rely fully on His strength and instead we continue to attempt relying on our own strength. When we do this, we only make it worse. We develop depression, anxiety, insomnia, and so many more mental instabilities. By letting God take the wheel we are finally able to realize how small our problems really are.

15. She Is Open to God’s Plans

Sometimes God's plans are completely different to what we were planning, but He knows our purpose and He knows the ways in which He intended to use us in this world. We were all called to a different purpose and being open to His plans are vital. We need to be able to go where He calls us without hesitation.

16. She Helps Guide Others to Become Effective Witnesses for Christ

As Christians our greatest purpose is to continue to bring people to God. Each of us have a different story to tell, a different testimony, and God wants to use it to change people's lives. You never know who may be listening and you never know whose lives you might touch with your testimony. Your personal testimony is what could change the course of someones life, because they want to know how God is working in us now.

17. She Walks in Love and Obedience to God

Have courage and be kind. One of my favourite Disney quotes. We need to walk in obedience to God and that takes a lot of courage, because walking in obedience means not following what everyone else is doing, it means saying no to going out and getting drunk, it is saying no to going over to that guys house, it is saying no to the ways of society. Walk in love, because that is who He is. God is love. The two most important commandments state that you should Love God with all your heart, and that you should love your neighbor as you love yourself.

18. She Passes Along Her Faith Throughout Her Family

This I find to be the most difficult. Your family, because they've known you their entire lives, have a set image of you. When you are labelled as something, it is so difficult to work your way out of them. Having to then also try bring Jesus Christ into your household can often pose a big challenge, but God is great like that. You see if it was easy, we wouldn't need Him, and we most definitely do need Him. By inviting God to take control and praying for the strength to overcome what you may experience when trying to bring your family to Jesus Christ, He is able to work miracles.

19. She Is Supported and Acknowledged by Other Believers

Ladies, we need to be surrounded by Godly women and supported by them. This obviously works the other way round as well, we too need to support them back. We are all part of the body of Christ, one family, and we should reflect it. We are not strong enough to do it on our own, and we are called to become a part of the Church (God's people) so that we have a support structure reminding us of what is right and what is wrong. Don't underestimate the company you keep and the impact they have on you. Be careful about who you surround yourself with. I think most of us have heard the phrase, "I'll show you who you are, when you show me your friends."

20. She Gives Generously to Those in Need

I think this is an obvious one, but we are going over it anyways. Christians are meant to be cheerful givers. We are meant to help people in need and to support those who cannot support themselves. As difficult as it may be, you really shouldn't pretend to ignore the people on the side of the road or at the traffic lights. We need to be different and we need to rise up and help where we can. Show God's love.

I hope this will help you. I, myself, am still learning these things. I am not perfect. I still have a lot of growing to do, but let's grow together.