Project Description

2013/01

Word to Women

If we put Christ first, all the lesser matters will fall into place.

Do you ever consider the women of the Bible – Deborah, Ruth, Esther, and the rest – and think, “Wow!  Isn’t she amazing?  I wish I could be like her”.   Or, perhaps, with resignation, “I could never be like that”.  Sometimes, we twenty-first century women tend to put these Bible characters on such a pedestal that we feel we could never attain their levels of spirituality, faith and testimony.   

But, think about it…they were all women who lived normal, everyday lives – just like us.  Maybe the difference is that they were willing to be led and used by the Lord in those ordinary lives.  Take Ruth, for example.  Starting out as an unknown in a foreign land, she happened (not by chance, but by God’s providence) to meet Naomi and her family; eventually, by God’s merciful guidance, and with a willing heart, she became the great-grandmother of King David and part of the ancestral line of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Women are certainly not the second-class citizens that the ‘women’s rights’ activists would have us believe.  No, indeed not, for the Bible is full of ordinary women who have lived with the same cares and concerns that we face. They have borne the trials of loss, grief and pain with which many of us can identify.  In tender love and compassion, the Lord has mentioned these women in His Word – not to make us feel inadequate and insignificant by comparison, but to help us learn from their experiences. Thus we are shown how to be resilient in the face of adversity, and by following their example, to become strong and godly women who are willing to be taught of the Lord.  

If you know Christ as your Saviour, and own Him as Lord of your life, while your story may not be recorded in Scripture, be assured that your life, with all its twists and turns, is important to Him. And, best of all, your name is written indelibly in the Lamb’s Book of Life!

At this time of year, many make resolutions to ‘behave better’ than in previous years.  Maybe they want to lose some weight, or exercise more, or take up a new hobby. Almost inevitably, by February, all these good intentions have drifted away. Isn’t it better to focus on one thing at a time, and do it well?  

How about taking your life with Christ really seriously this year, asking Him to lead you into a closer walk with Him?  As Matthew 6:33 reminds us, if we put Christ first, all the lesser matters will fall into place.  Let’s make it our aim and desire throughout the whole of 2013 to have that willing heart, and, like Ruth, be guided by our heavenly Father to live as ‘daughters of faith’.  

My prayer for us all is that we will grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ our Lord and Saviour, and so bring much glory to the name of God our Father.

Karen Murray