God has called us to be women, not men.

When I heard that statement I marveled. How many of us have seen women trying to be like men…most of us can think of at least one instance…ok…a little closer to home…how many of US have acted like men instead of women??? Now that one stings a little. In today’s world we are taught that in order to succeed in a “man’s” world, we have to be as good as they are, to even beat them at their own game so to speak. We have to be in control. The thing is, God made us women, God made us to be who we are, on purpose FOR a purpose. He didn’t call us to dominate our husbands or each other. He called us to LOVE Him, to LOVE our husbands, to LOVE our children, to LOVE one another. Think about it for a minute. Imagine what your life would be like if you woke up in the morning and you had no agenda other than to love and please God, to love and serve your husband and to love and train your children. Can you imagine the peace that would be in your home? Did you know that if you please God you will please those whom it is necessary that you please? You absolutely cannot please everybody all of the time. It is impossible. You cannot serve yourself and please God, but if you are pleasing to God, there is where you will find peace and happiness. Let this be a challenge to all of us. If we all strive to please God, to love and to serve, think about where we will go as a church, we will actually begin to make a difference!

Part of coming to a place where you can have a positive impact on those around you involves forgiveness…receiving and giving forgiveness. The only way you are going to be truly free is when you forgive those who have hurt you. The only way you will be forgiven is when you forgive those who have hurt you…

The Word of God is VERY clear on this subject. Mat 6:15, Mk 11:26, Luke 6:37. Most of you know what these Scriptures say. Take the time to read them again and then start thinking…ask God to help you, to bring to light those you need to forgive. By forgiving them you will not only bring a release in your own life, but also theirs!! What a powerful thing to be able to do! You hold in your hand the ability to lighten someone else’s load! Read John 20:23….

Have you ever wished that someone would have come along and taken you under her wing? Have you read in the Scripture where the Bible tells older women to teach the younger women and longed for some one to teach you…you know…things like HOW to actually care for this baby?? HOW are you supposed to love this man you have pledged your life to when he is driving you NUTS?? HOW to be a Godly woman??

If you are like me you have longed for, cried for a woman to be a true mother to you. One who will love you without criticism and see past the outside into your heart and take the time to listen to you and teach you, one you can truly call a friend. Well, ladies, if you are like me, that never came. I was ridiculed and criticized for what I did not know. They would say things like “That’s common sense” when I would ask a question. Well, it wasn’t common to me! I needed help and acceptance, not what they were handing me. I have learned that there is no such thing as common sense…sense is only common to the one who has had the experience and has learned the lesson. So, what is the answer to the cry of our heart?

The answer is this…You need to BE the woman you always needed! You need to be the mother to love, explain to and accept the hurting woman beside you. You need to remember from whence you came, remember the hurt you felt when no one was there for you…remember what it felt like to be rejected and criticized when what you really needed was for somebody to just tell you what you were supposed to do! You be the one to show that lady how much God loves her. Show her how to wrap her baby, show her how to change that diaper so the baby doesn’t get a rash and how to rock the baby so she stops crying…take the baby for a few minutes and give her a break! Take the two year old for a walk in the yard so she can use the bathroom! Do the things for her that you wished someone would do for you. The possibilities are endless for how you can show her the love of her Father, show her she is not alone and that she is WORTH something! YOU can be the hand of God, reaching out. It can and it will change people’s lives and it takes so little effort. Be kind, be gentle and remember that whatever you give shall be given unto you.

Have you ever wondered…even asked yourself the question…what am I worth? You may have asked it differently…like, what am I good for?? What is my purpose?? Sound familiar? Well, I think it’s about time we took a look at that very important question and answered it. If we are ever going to become women of God, we must be able to answer that question. (tune in men…you’ll learn some things about yourself too :) ) I am going to ask you to look up the Scriptures that I list, to actually study for yourself because that’s the way you will learn the best…the word of God is life to us and it is health to all of our flesh. It isn’t good enough to just hear what someone else has to say. You have to read it yourself…YOU have to apply it to YOURSELF.

The question is what are we worth…what am I worth. I want you to ask yourself that question and try to answer it…jot what you think down in a notebook. It’ll only be for you to see, but you need to start to ask yourself some hard questions, questions that need answers. I am going to answer the questions as I have asked myself. They are my opinion of myself, the result of my life. Yours may be the same, they may be different, you may be able to relate or you may have no idea where I got such ideas! I will be totally open and honest with you, bearing my soul. We will look into the Word of God and see what He has to say. It is my hope and prayer that we will begin to see ourselves as God sees us, not as we have been molded by our environment to see ourselves. As we begin to see ourselves as He sees us we will begin to change into that image, changing the lives of our children, of our husbands and of the people around us. It’s time we understood who we are so we can have the impact God intends us to have in these last days….so… let our journey begin!

When I ask myself the question…what am I worth or what is my purpose, I have to stop and really think because my first thought is I’m worth nothing…that my existence was a mistake. Well, that isn’t true, not because I feel it isn’t true, not because I look like it isn’t true. It is not the truth because GOD said it isn’t true! Pause for a minute and read what He has to say…PS 139:13,14, PS 22:9, 10, PS 71:6 and Gal 1:15.

After having read these Scriptures, I cannot say that I was a mistake. So, back to the question, what am I worth? What does the Scripture say? Well, He says that He loved me so much that He gave His only Son to die in my place, so I could be clean, so I could walk with Him, blameless. Jesus bore all my pain and suffering, my disease, my guilt, my poverty on His own body. Isa 53:5, 1Pet 2:24. What kind of a picture does that paint? I guess I must mean a lot to my Father, my worth is that of His daughter. The thing is every single human being can say the same thing through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He no longer sees us…He sees Jesus. We are washed and covered in the precious blood of Jesus. So…what happens when we allow our thoughts and our words to speak things contrary to what He has said? If we are covered by His blood, if we are renewed, restored and healed by His word, what happens when we speak and think outside of that Word? The simple answer is death and destruction.

God has called us, He has told us it’s time to “Step Up”! He has asked us to become what He wants us to be by being renewed in His Word, not to stay as we are…what we perceive ourselves to be by our own thoughts or the opinions of others. In order to change we must examine ourselves in the light of the New Testament, identify the areas that are lacking and change our thinking to live up to that picture painted in the Scripture. Ask questions, answer honestly, keep in mind that it’s the truth as we LIVE it that brings change, not the truth as we KNOW it. We, as a church, have heard the Word of God preached for 25 years. If the truth as we know it changed us we would be giants. We need to LIVE what we have been taught. We need to change and make that determination TODAY. Ladies, we are the answer, we are the ones that can make the difference. We have been told all our lives that we are the problem, but that is NOT true…WE ARE THE ANSWER!!! God’s truth must be established in our lives TODAY…the truth according to the Scripture, not according to our own perceptions or our own thoughts. We MUST study to show ourselves approved so that we will not be ashamed. We MUST get on our faces before God to hear from heaven…not to hear how much He loves us, but to hear what we need to do to show THEM…out there…how much He loves them! We have been bought with a price, a costly price. We need to be transformed starting today. Rom 12:2, 1 Cor 6:20, 1 Cor 7:23