Kingdom Woman: Embracing Your Purpose, Power, and Possibilities (10 page)

When looking for a woman of great and powerful faith, God looked beyond the pew. He looked into hearts to find the one woman who would respond. In fact, when God looked for someone to ultimately save the ministry of His prophet Elijah at a time of great trial and need, He didn’t even go to a man. There certainly were many men at that time with access to some food. Yet at this crucial moment in Elijah’s calling as a prophet, God intentionally singled out a kingdom woman to save the day.

Jesus spoke about the widow in Zarephath, specifically highlighting the fact that God sent Elijah to a woman for help in a crunch time in his ministry:

In other words, God knew that when times had gotten tough and each person was trying to survive, the church folk’s faith wasn’t going to be strong enough to do what He was going to ask. The women of Israel, the ladies who had been raised to trust in the Lord with all their hearts, weren’t going to believe His words. Nor would the men. But the foreigner, a woman living outside of the normal “Christian” circles, was the one who would believe. So she got the supernatural intervention in a very hopeless and desperate scenario. She got the supernatural investment from God that would last until the natural investment—the rain—would once again bring food.

I don’t think this woman would be the first woman many people conjure up when they consider women of great faith. As a widow living in a time of famine, she was no doubt discouraged and forlorn. Her clothes were probably tattered. Her shoes, if she had any, probably had holes. I don’t know what she
used to make the bread, perhaps a bowl that was chipped or broken, over coals that barely had anything left to give. Whatever container she used, it wouldn’t have made it into any department store for sale or fine restaurant to use for cooking. But when coupled with faith, what seemed like not enough became the very avenue for more than enough.

Often faith involves looking beyond what you can see or the limitations that you face. Maybe you don’t have enough time in the day to do all you need to do. Or maybe you really don’t have any resources to carry out all that needs to be done. It could be that you are struggling to raise your kids all alone while your husband is busy working or traveling or the children’s father has long been out of the picture altogether. Maybe your bank account is low, and you are doing all you can to find a job, and God is asking you to still honor Him with a portion of your money. Or it could be that you have received a report from your doctor that is not good, but God has placed the hope in your heart to believe in His healing touch.

Maybe God has made it clear to you that He wants you to walk away from your career and stay home full-time with your children, but your family cannot make it on only one income. Or maybe God told you to give away that bonus you got this year to a nearby family in need. Whatever the case, faith acts on the truth that even though you don’t have enough, God has more than enough, and He has promised to supply all that you need.

Chrystal’s Chronicles

As I write this reflection, I am so very blessed to still have both of my grandmothers alive and available to speak into my life on a regular basis. My maternal grandmother, “Grandma,” will be ninety-four soon, and she is planning to embark on yet another
cruise in a few weeks. My paternal grandmother, “Two Mama,” calls me without fail if she feels like I’ve gone too long without calling her. If she doesn’t call, she sends me an e-mail in ALL CAPS, clearly conveying her disapproval of my lack of communication. Yes. At almost eighty years of age, my grandmother sends e-mails to me.

Both of my grandmothers are alive and kicking.

But since time waits for no one, I’m conscious that the time I have with each of them is precious and that every phone call, every visit, and every kiss on a well-worn cheek is a priceless gift.

The funny thing about watching grandparents or parents age is that I see the people in my life who have always been the strongest, the most in-charge, and the most together slowly morphing before my eyes. They move from a state of perceived independence into a season of dependence.

Recently, my lovely Two Mama has had some health challenges. After years of being a diabetic and having multiple surgeries to maintain good blood flow to her extremities, Two Mama had to have one of her legs amputated. She had gone to the hospital in so much pain. And she’s a strong woman, so if she said she was hurting, it must have been really bad. Over the next couple of days, her doctor determined that nothing else could be done to save the leg.

I wasn’t there. I couldn’t hold her hand. So I did the next best thing and called many times a day. On one of those phone calls, I could hear her crying out in anguish. The pain was just too much, and I heard my strong grandmother expressing that guttural sound that only true agony knows. My dad, who was in the room with her at the time, put the phone to her ear and told me to talk.

“Two Mama, I love you. I’m sorry you are in so much pain. We all love you and are praying that all will be well soon. It’s gonna be okay. You are gonna be okay.”

In between her waves of throbbing trauma, I heard her say, “God is good, baby. I have to trust Him. God is good.”

Where does someone get that kind of faith? Where does a woman find the strength to speak well of her God in the middle of intense pain, hurt, distress, discomfort, or difficulty?

I still consider myself to be in the middle of my own faith walk and don’t have the strong fortress of faith my grandmothers have both attained in the face of a lifetime’s exposure to good and not-so-good times. However, I know this to be true: The kind of faith my grandmother showed that day and in the days ahead is the kind
of faith that can only be built brick by brick and day by day as a woman walks committed to God’s purposes and plans for her life.

Hebrews 11:1 defines
faith
as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
The Message
defines it this way: “The firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.”

Why did my grandmother have the ability to speak well of God in a difficult circumstance? Because she chose to. It’s that simple. Not necessarily easy. But definitely simple.

Faith is a decision.

Faith is a decision you make to believe the best about your spouse when you feel deep disappointment about who he appears to be.

Faith is a decision you make to believe that you are who God says you are even when you struggle regularly with insecurity and self-doubt.

Faith is a decision you make to believe that handling your money God’s way is the best way.

Faith is a decision you make to believe that making time to pray about your concerns is a better use of your time than worrying about them.

Faith is a decision you make to believe that the dark road you are traveling on will eventually yield to a sunrise.

Faith is the decision to meditate on, repeat, and rehearse what God says about you and your life—despite what you see.

Just as my grandmother chose to believe in the goodness of God when there was absolutely nothing good about her situation, every true woman of faith must do the same.

A kingdom woman does hard things, and sometimes having faith based on God’s Word is the simplest yet toughest thing she will ever have to do.

My mom’s mother, Grandma, has seen the object of her faith come to be. She is a mother of eight children, all of whom know Jesus as their personal Savior. That didn’t happen by accident. My grandmother spent much of her time raising children
alone because my grandfather’s job kept him away much of the time. She had the task of caring for the children not only physically but also for their souls.

My mother and her siblings still remember fondly the morning Bible studies that my grandmother led, where she expected them to respectfully listen to God’s Word and her discussion of the text. She did this with children who struggled to sit still, children who would sometimes giggle or contract a case of the “sillies,” and even teenagers who thought they might have better things to do. My grandmother read the Bible consistently to them for years because she had faith—faith that God’s Word would not return void and that she would live to see her children love and serve the Lord. It wasn’t easy, but she did it.

These stories of my grandmother with children on her knee encourage me in the season that I’m in. Motherhood is a job that can have a twenty-plus-year wait for the first paycheck. But it is a little easier to press through the wiggles and giggles or the blank stares of the young adults under my roof because I know that I’m not the first one to walk this road.

And you are not the first woman to walk the road you travel either.

The faith we must have as Christian women develops best in the incubator of a community of women whose faith walks have taken them a little farther down the road than we currently are. I hope you have women in your life who can encourage you to keep walking forward when the streetlights are off and your flashlight is broken.

Even if you don’t feel like you have that kind of sisterhood, God’s Word is full of stories of women who walked the same path. Those women found out that it is worthwhile to trust that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He can do.

Like Rahab, believe God to set you free from a lifestyle that does not please Him.

Like Hannah, believe that God hears the guttural longings of your soul.

Like Ruth, believe that God can carry you through devastation and loss so you can dance again.

Like Bathsheba, believe that God’s goodness can supersede the consequences of a bad decision.

Like the woman at the well, believe that God can satisfy your deepest thirst.

Like Mary, the woman with the expensive perfume, believe that to offer Jesus the best of everything you are and everything you have is never a worthless pursuit.

Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, believe that God can use regular gals like you and me to deliver great things to the rest of the world or to the mission field within our own homes.

Yes, I am blessed to have both of my grandmothers with me and to see the fruit of their faith as well as their continual practice of faith in God—who He is and what they know He can do.

You are blessed because that same God is
your
God: “Know therefore that the
LORD
your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Even when it hurts, God is with you. Even when it’s hard, God can help you. Even when things seem out of control, God is for you.

He hears every cry and sees every tear. He is not absent when you are in a state of anguish or anxiety. He knows that you don’t want to travel your road alone. He is not off duty, on leave, or MIA. He knows that He has asked you for high sacrifice, hard choices, or to carry a heavy cross.

Have faith. And if all you can conjure up is a mustard seed’s worth, that’s enough.

Act Out

Even though your faith may be small, let your actions be big. Step out and praise God in spite of the trial you may be facing. Step out and stand on God’s Word, even when it might not make sense to the people around you. More than that, step out in faith and offer help to others who might be struggling similarly to you. Choose to honor God by giving Him something that is near and dear to you. Whether you sacrifice your own time, energy, or a personal want, nothing is wasted when you commit it to serving Him.

Kingdom women understand that one of the secrets to a life full of the power of faith is to honor God by what you give to Him and what you give to others in His name. Luke 6:38 is frequently quoted, but few people truly understand it. We looked at it briefly in the last chapter, but let’s take a closer look now:

This one verse summarizes the core of both women we covered earlier in this chapter. To get something in return for their faith, both Hannah and the widow had to give something. Hannah made the commitment to God that she would give up her son if God would give her one. The widow had to give away all she had left to eat.

Other kingdom women in the Bible did similar things. In fact, we looked at Ruth earlier in the book. She gave up the potential for a relationship with men in her own culture. It would have been much easier for Ruth to find another man in her own country than as a foreigner in another country. Yet she told Naomi, her mother-in-law, that she was going to give up that option and go with Naomi instead. Ruth told Naomi that her people would be Ruth’s people, too. She said that Naomi’s God would be Ruth’s God. Ruth made a kingdom-based decision to follow the one true God above any personal or convenience-based plans she might have had.