"The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord is clothed,
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting."
Psalm 93:1-2
Good day! Let's seek the Lord.........
Father, I come before You today in gratefulness for all You have done for me. I thank You for my husband, my son, our home, and our church. I thank You for You word and how it heals us and convicts us to confess our sins before You.
I praise and thank You for each lady reading this study here today. I pray for peace in her life and in her home. I pray for her marriage that You make it stronger. I pray for her children and grandchildren that You use her words and deeds to reveal to them who You are.
I confess my sins before You and my sisters-in-Christ. I confess my selfishness and stubborness. I confess my unwillingness to submit to my husband. All of these are sins against You and only You. I pray that You will wash me clean today through Your word. I pray that You will clothe me in humility and Your strength.
In Jesus' name......amen.
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"Establish the worship of God in any house, and you erect around it a new barrier against the corruption of the world, the flesh, and the devil."
-James W. Alexander (1804-1859) Puritan Minister. (Thoughts on Family Worship, 1998, p. 27)
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Today's passage: "Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her..."
When I was in college, I lived with three Christian young women: Two sisters and their friend.
We were friends, but not close friends. My three roommates, however, were very close. They attended the same church and knew the same people. I attended a different church and did not know their friends at all. Needless to say, there were times when I felt like an outsider.
But I was grateful to have a place to live that I could afford. We got along most of the time.
The main reason we were not close was because they were strong Christians who decided to wait until marriage to have sex and I was a Christian in a sexual relationship with my boyfriend.
My sin caused a big gulf between us. At first I thought they were being judgmental and mean, but looking back on it I see that they were putting their First Love first. They were being obedient to their Savior. I wasn't. I had willingly abandoned my First Love.
I truly admired the close relationship the two sisters had with their parents. They would often come over during the day and have lunch. They talked and laughed together. They even sang together with mom at the piano! The sisters truly called their mother blessed. I had honestly never seen a family who loved each other so much. It was strange to me, but I truly admired and envied it.
Many years later, I received a phone call from a friend who told me that one of my college roommates had been killed in the Wedgewood Baptist Church shootings in September 1999. Sydney Browning was the oldest sister of my roommates. She had graduated with honors from Grand Canyon University and went on to earn her Masters degree from Dallas Theological Seminary.
Syndey decided to teach at one of the most dangerous schools in the country. She taught at a high school for juvenile delinquents in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area. She literally risked her life everyday she went to work.
The Lord was using Sydney at her church as well. She was the leader of the youth choir and also taught a women's Bible study. She had a lovely singing voice and had recorded a CD of Christian hymns. She was teaching a women's Bible study when she was shot and killed by a mad man who entered the church that fateful Wednesday night.
I was so perplexed as to why the Lord would take a 36yr. woman in her prime who was serving Him with all her heart, mind, and soul. She lived the life of "singleness" in a godly way. She wasn't perfect, she had a sarcastic humor that often hurt people's feelings, including my own. But her students, family, and friends loved her.
At her memorial, thousands of people attended. One after the other, people got up to tell anecdotes about Sydney. One said that Sydney was running the race toward Jesus. She was a fast runner, so if you couldn't keep up, she would not slow down for you. That was the perfect way to describe her!
After attending her memorial, I sat there in shame looking back on my life. I had wasted so many years NOT serving God in comparison to this young woman's life of service. The Holy Spirit truly convicted me that night and I decided to begin to serve the Lord for His glory.
But the one thing I will never forget about Sydney was how close her family was. How she and her sister truly blessed their mom and dad by words and deeds. I wrote a letter to Sydney's mom telling her about how I will always remember her sitting in our little apartment kitchen laughing with her daughters and about how I admired her family so. Oh how they loved her and she loved them.
The reason I am writing about this part of my life is because these sisters praised and blessed their mother, but they also blessed their heavenly Father as well with their obedience and with their actions.
That is the type of woman I want to be.
Please read:
Prov 10:6-7
There are blessings ahead for those who are righteous. Sydney has received her reward for all her hard service to God. She is in His presence for eternity.
Who does Jesus bless?
Matt 5:3-12
The poor in spirit
The meek
Those who hunger for righteousness
The merciful
The pure in heart
The peacemakers
The persecuted
The Virtuous Wife seeks not for her own glory, but for the glory of the Lord.
Please read:
Matt 11:6
We are to tell others about Christ and take that risk. Then we shall be blessed.
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Life Application
I included a quote from James W. Alexander because he wrote a little book about Family Worship many years ago. In this book, he writes about how the husband and father is the Pastor of the Christian home.
That makes us the Pastor's Wife.
All of us know or have known a Pastor's Wife who just delighted us. She was or is a picture of patience and grace and love. She knows her husband's flock and their concerns. Always is she welcoming and kind in word and deed. She is a prayer warrior.
Then there are those who are only interested in the position of Pastor's Wife and they hardly know their husband's flock. She only is involved or interested in social events at the church and not much more. All of us have probably known a Pastor's Wife like that.
So, if we are called to be a Pastor's Wife inside our home, which woman do we relate to more?
How is our speech when it comes to our husband, the Pastor of our home? How do our children treat their Pastor?
I know I am guilty of being critical of my husband in front of our son. It is a sin to teach my son how to denegrate his father, the Pastor of our home.
Remember why God created? To be known.
Our children will know us by what we do.
Please read:
Ezekiel 34:25-26
If we obey, there will be blessings. Disobey.....no blessings.
Ezekiel 33:28-29
Think about it.......
The work of a wife, of course, is never over. There is always laundry to do, food to prepare or purchase, rooms to clean, toilets to scrub, noses to wipe. Sometimes it seems as if the work will never end.
But remember, we serve a God who rewards hard work.
I remember Dr. R.C. Sproul talking about when his daughter went into labor with one of his grandchildren. He waited at the hospital while she delivered her baby. He could hear her screams from the pain.....but unfortunately, she wasn't screaming from the pain of the labor.
Instead, she was crying because her baby was born dead. As Dr. Sproul walked into the room to see his daughter in agony over the death of her child, he could see that she was most distraught over the fact that there was no reward for all her labor. And it seemed so unfair.
I always remember that story because we all can identify with that young woman's pain in a way. All of us want to be rewarded for all the pain and work we go through in life. What if that reward never comes???
Here, Proverbs 31: 28 tells us that her children rise up and call her blessed, and her husband too!
So many of us hope and pray that our day will come too when we hear our children praise us for all that we did for them. But is that vanity?
Ecc. 2:10-11
What is our true reward?
Please read:
Ps. 19:7-11
Ps. 91:9-11
Prov. 25:21-22
Matt. 10: 40-42
Luke 6:35
1 Cor 3:8
2 John 7-8
Finally.....
Rev 22:12
Let's do our work for the reward that will come from Jesus, like the apostles did....like my friend Sydney did. Yes, it would be great to hear our children bless us and our husband's too.....but we must labor for our eternal reward through Christ.
Remember the works that we do in our home. Remember that we are a Pastor's Wife even if our earthly husband is not a believer, we have a heavenly husband who is The Pastor of our homes and our lives.
Let's strive to do our works in a way that please God, like my friend Sydney did.
Let's strive to teach our children about their eternal reward from Jesus.
That's what it means to be a Virtuous Woman.....a Virtuous Wife.
Until next time..............
"God will sovereignly send His people into your life with words to spark your growth....but your responsibility is to be available and willing to hear their words with an open heart.
The God of the Universe will communicate with you through prayer, sovereignly leading you along the path He has marked out for you....but you are responsible for setting aside time in prayer.
God will teach you through the Bible, sovereignly customizing the lesson to the student's needs....but it is your responsibility to study and meditate upon His word...."
-Donna Partow (Becoming a Vessel God Can Use, 1996, p. 138)
Blessings,
Ruth
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