Women of God

READ THIS BEFORE YOUR NEXT IDENTITY CRISIS

Who are you? There are so many attributes, qualities, and things you probably attempt to use to identify yourself as a person and as a woman. Add being a Christian woman to the mix, and the waters unfortunately don’t seem to get any less muddied. What it means to be a godly woman is a giant subject to tackle and one that will not be fully covered here. I can only hope to pass along a tidbit of wisdom that has helped me enormously as I try to make sense of what being a godly woman looks like. That is this: the only identity that matters is whose you are. If you are a Christian today, then you belong to Jesus. You don’t have to struggle to figure out your own identity, He has taken care of that.

So if we are to let God determine our identity, it is most helpful to read what He has already said. It’s no secret that Proverbs 31 is the go-to chapter for women, with good reason. It is packed with godly wisdom that we could talk about for hours on end, but for now, let’s focus on the verse that sums it all up: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

CHARM IS DECEITFUL

The realization that we can leverage how we act, talk, and dress to make people give us what we want, begins at a very young age. It starts innocently enough, but let it go a few years, and this attitude can quickly take on much more sinister consequences. For example, there was a woman who used her daughter to manipulate her husband to murder John the Baptist simply because she didn’t like what he said (Matthew 14). It’s hard to admit our sinful nature tends towards deceit and manipulation, but it does. When we pick an identity for ourselves instead of allowing God to define it for us, charm becomes a tool to get us where we want to go. A godly woman actively fights against this tendency and instead conducts herself in an authentic, honest manner that desires good for others instead of just herself.

The only identity that matters is whose you are.

BEAUTY IS PASSING

We all fall prey to attempting to achieve some beauty standard even though we know it is temporary. We still believe that by achieving some level of outward beauty, whether that is how we physically look, the lifestyle we live, or the things we do, that these outward things will fix who we are on the inside. These external things are much easier to define ourselves with instead of letting anyone see who we really are. A godly woman realizes that the only thing truly beautiful in her life is Jesus, and she aims to make Him look good to others, not herself.

FEAR THE LORD

Fearing the Lord is foundational. Remember when I said your identity is about whose you are? Jesus, God’s very own Son, suffered, died, and endured God’s wrath so that you (and me) could be adopted into God’s family and belong to Him. If you are a part of God’s family, you will begin to take on family resemblance in every aspect, like loving and obeying God because of who He is and what He has done. That’s all. We overcomplicate things when we try to align our actions to some made-up version of who we think God wants us to be instead of just listening to what He is actually telling us to do.

That’s where I want to leave this for now. I don’t know exactly how your life should look, but godly women should all look similar since we are following the same Jesus. And that is beautiful.