HOW WEAK ARE YOU?

Proverbs 31: 25
‘Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future.’

As a Christian

The idea that one could smile at the future in the current world that we live in must be quite an alarming thought to most. Even as we encountered in our last study about how the recession we are currently facing can be considered a blessing, so many woman would think this is decidedly strange. So how can a woman who lives in crime-riddled, recession hit South Africa smile at the future?
The answer is found in how weak we are. Weakness is condemned in our world and sometimes rightly so. But in the proper context of being a Christian woman acknowledging our weakness before God can be the most liberating opportunity available to us. Despite everyone telling us that we have to be uber-strong women who accomplish everything on our own this is not the truth of the Bible. The only way for us to be saved is to come to God in sorrow over sin and to ask Him for forgiveness and mercy through the blood of Jesus. So as we come to our Lord we acknowledge we are weak and unable to pay for our sins or take away our guilt. From then on our everyday walk must be one in which we acknowledge our inability to do anything in our own strength but only in our Lord’s. So the correct kind of weakness says ‘God, I cannot do this on my own but I want to please you, please give me strength and endurance.’ This will mean we will not grow weary in well-doing but rather gracefully grow in strength of character. We should be constantly looking at those sinful areas we have not dealt with and ask God to change us and act upon His Word.

Emotional Strength

Upon discussing this issue with my husband he thought that it would be in the arena of ‘emotional strength’ that most women struggle and I agreed with him. But the root cause of many Christian women’s failure in this area is dependence on self rather than on the Lord which leads to a selfish attitude. How am I going to get through this, who is going to help me and so on, it reminds of little children jumping up and down and asking when it’s going to be their turn! – Prior to salvation we are selfish impatient beings and we therefore need to put off our dependence on self and rely on our Father.
God is pleased when we exhibit the fruit of the spirit and maintain our love for our families and desire to be used of him.
‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires.
Prior to these verses the Apostle Paul has discussed what the world is full of and it’s not a pretty picture! Collapsing in a heap under the pressure of life will not cause our families to one day rise up and call us blessed BUT we have the unbelievable opportunity to be ambassadors for Christ in our homes. It will bless your husband when he knows you have had a difficult time but he sees you smiling and happy because this builds him up in the most holy faith knowing that it is not you but Christ within you. How amazing when looked at from this perspective. One of Joel’s memory verses when he whines, cries, complains, gets angry etc has been Proverbs 25:28 ‘Whoever cannot rule his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls’, even as he has recited it with me I have realised that I too need to learn the value of fortifying my own life with God’s strength so that ‘my castle’ is not easily broken down.
Even though the Proverbs 31 woman accomplishes so much and has the busiest days ever, there are still seasons for when she does things and she would not have done all these activities spoken of in the Scriptures every single day. We must be careful not to fall into a perfectionist trap and think that society is how we should measure ourselves as this will lead to all manners of sin including anxiousness, worry, and self-pity and so on. How can we be givers of good council in our homes, if the lives we lead do not illustrate that which would give glory to the Lord?
This woman does not smile at the future in some haphazard whimsical way, she is not throwing caution to the wind and believing whatever she “feels is right”. A Proverbs 31 woman knows that God is in control of this universe and that what is occurring in her life at this time is being worked out according to His will. Let’s acknowledge our utter dependence and weakness before God and ask Him to make us strong for His glory and that those around us may see God’s transforming power.

PRAYER: Lord, please show us where we have been self-reliant and indifferent to You, show us where we can improve. Please be merciful to us in how You correct us and help us to be kind and merciful when we correct our own children. May Your strength and care be mirrored in our own lives that we may serve You first and be faithful to what You have called us to do.
Amen.

'God could quite justly have abandoned us to our fate.He could have left us alone to reap the fruit of our wrongdoingand to perish in our sins.It is what we deserved.But He did not.
Because he loved us, He came after us in Christ.He pursued us even to the desolate anguish of the cross, where he bore oursin, guilt, judgment, and death.
It takes a hard and stony heart to remain unchangedby love like that.It is more than love.Its proper name is ‘grace,’which is love to the undeserving.'
John Stott

Posted by Ruth Phillips
(Apologies for the delay in the post - internet problems)