Strength is defined as being able to withstand great force or pressure. This culture we live in today throws so many challenges at us! Society tells us how it thinks women should dress, think, act, speak, and live. But as Christians, it's our job to choose to be strong against the pressures of this world stand up for Christ. Being strong in the face of the challenges we face takes a very strong person! Here are some characteristics that a strong woman of God should have.
1. A strong woman of God will be confident in Christ
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are more value than many sparrows. Luke 12:7
Can you believe that?! Every hair on our head is numbered. That's how intimately God knows us. To have a mindset of rest, we must realize how much God loves us and cherishes us.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. Psalm 139:17-18
This verse gets me every time. He thinks more precious thoughts of me than there are GRAINS OF SAND. I can't imagine counting every grain of sand on one beach, let alone every grain in the entire world. We are loved by our Creator, and we need to be confident in that. A strong woman of God needs to be someone who doesn't talk badly about her looks, bash herself, call herself names, or talk down upon the way that God made her. A strong woman is someone who doesn't need to doubt that she is loved and she is cherished.
2. A strong woman of God will encourage others
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32
Because we are loved by God, we will show this love to other people. Kind people are gentle, slow to wrath, not easily crabby or sour. Kind people go out of their way to make others happy. Being tenderhearted requires a person to be soft. A tenderhearted person will be sensitive to the thoughts, needs, struggles and pains of others. Forgiveness can be so hard when someone has wronged us, yet we must remember that no matter how much people wrong us, it will never compare to the amount of times we wrong God. A strong woman of God is someone who will encourage others, who will find ways to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving with everyone at all times.
3. A strong woman of God will serve
And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be the servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark 10:44-45
Strong women of God will look for ways to minister and serve others. She will work lowly jobs that may go unnoticed. She is willing to do work that nobody else wants to do. Our strength should be used to help others around us. A strong woman of God realizes that everything we do either serves ones self, or God, and she will choose to serve Him.
4. A strong woman of God will support other women
A new commandment that I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loved one another. John 13:34-35
This is the only time in the Bible where it says that if you do this, you WILL have a testimony. We are supposed to be people who love and support our brothers and sisters. Something that is so common among Christian circles is women bashing other women. We are judgmental, we are mean, we gossip, we whisper behind people's backs, we make fun, we even go so far as to hate. This is something that must stop in our culture. There is more unity in women of the world than there is in the church! What kind of example are we showing? Strong women of God will support and build up their sisters in Christ instead of forming cliques and being mean.
5. A strong woman of God will speak with truth and grace
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:15
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Colossians 4:6
The things we say need to be edifying and loving. Every word that we say should be words that could come out of the mouth of Jesus himself. What if every word you said in a day was flashed across a billboard for the entire world to see? How careful would you be? A strong woman of God who speaks with both truth and grace will build up and be able to bring many people together for the glory of God.
6. A strong woman of God will be able to change the world
Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth life to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. Matthew 5:13-16
The world is not impressed with a woman who claims to be a Christian yet acts like the world. The world needs strong women who can defend the clear gospel of grace and stand up for Biblical standards. The world needs to seee women who love others, love God, and are dedicated to His service. That's how we are going to reach the lost. A strong woman of God will be a light in a lost and dying world, she will defend the clear gospel no matter what, and she will always choose the Lord's side before anything the world has to offer.
These types of women are few and rare, yet there are still so many amazing women who are out there right now serving the King to their fullest potential. May it be our challenge to be women who will stand up for what's right, who will be able withstand all pressure that the world has to offer, and who will be bold witnesses for Christ. There's nothing more powerful than a woman who is secure in her Creator, who never forgets that she was bought with a price, and chooses to live like it every day.
Stay excellent!
Derived from Lauren Demoss' post against feminism and for godly women at http://www.thefulltimegirl.com/2015/05/20/7-characteristics-strong-women-god/
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