Dee2rites Blog

Tag: for women

  • God’s Unrelenting Love

    “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:10

    The first song I learned as a child was “Jesus loves me this I know because the Bible tells me so.” And the first Bible verse I learned was John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe on Him would not die but have everlasting life.” I had child faith in the truth of those words, but as I grechild-prayer-clipart-royalty-free-praying-clipart-illustration-216150w up I also heard, and believed other words presented as truth. Along the way the messages of the world began to drown out the message of God’s love for me.
    Turn on the TV or listen to the radio for even a little while and we can hear that we’re not thin enough so we need this diet or that medical procedure. Our job is inadequate so we need to go to this school or take that training program. Over and over we hear how lacking we are.
    Some messages we absorb from the world are subtle and more damaging to our soul. We compare ourselves or our lives to others and feel inadequate. We try to compensate by turning to other people, working harder at our job or even drugs or alcohol. But these are band-aides, incapable of healing deep wounds, and frequently only cause more pain. Meanwhile, God is calling us to Himself, whispering “I am the One who paid a great price for you, I am the One who heals, I am the One who can give your life meaning.” We must go back to that simple child-like faith and believe that Jesus loves us.
    When God sent His Son Jesus to the cross because He loved the whole world, it wasn’t just the whole world in general, but it was for every specific individual ever born of a woman. If you’d been the only person who ever lived, He’d have done it for you.
    I pray that you can know, can have intimate knowledge of how much God loves you. It’s not about who you are, how you look, where you came from, or even what you’ve done. It’s all about God and His love for you. He has assigned great worth and value to you. His love is unrelenting and it pursues you. He desires you to know Him and find your place and value in Him.
    Here is a prayer the Apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, and it is my prayer for you.
    “I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19 (NET Bible)
    Peace and blessings in our Lord Jesus Christ,


    Dee

     

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  • Lessons of Michal

    “Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).

    And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31, 32, The Amplified Bible)


    Over and over in the New Testament we are warned against allowing bitterness into our lives. In the passage above, the Apostle Paul says to let it “…be banished from you”. That’s pretty strong. The key to doing that is found in the following verse:  “… forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.”  When we hold on to unforgiveness, bitterness is allowed to take root in our hearts and from there grows resentment, anger and ill will.

    We justify ourselves by focusing on what was done to us by someone one else. “You just don’t know what he said to me” or “You don’t know what she did”. But God didn’t say “forgive them if they deserve it”. He only instructed us to forgive and to banish all bitterness from us. When we allow unforgiveness and bitterness to remain in our hearts, we are the ones who bear the consequences.

    “The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.” (Proverbs 14:10) When we wallow in self-pity, we wallow alone.

    One example in the Old Testament is the story of David and Michal. Theirs was a love story turned bad. (You can read their entire story in 1 Samuel chapters 18, 19 and 25, and 2 Samuel chapters 3 and 6.)

    Michal was the younger daughter of King Saul, the sister of Jonathan, and she was David’s first wife. First Samuel 18:20 says she loved David and after they were married, she defied her father and helped David escape when Saul was trying to kill him. (1 Samuel 9:11-19) Years passed, and she was abandoned by David. Her father gave her to another man in marriage and David took other wives. After Saul died, David finally decided to send for her. By this time he has six sons, all by different wives. Michal is not coming home to a husband whose has been lonely and yearning for her.  And she is forced to leave a husband who probably loves her. 2 Samuel 3:16 says “But her husband went with her, weeping behind her all the way to Bahurim.” We don’t have any details of their reunion, but I suspect it probably was not the joyous reunion of long lost lovers.

    The next detail of their story we have in Scripture, takes place when King David brings the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem and he danced “with all his might” before the Lord. It was a great time of celebrating. David made burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. He blessed all the people with cakes and meats – it was a party. The Scripture says he returned to bless his household and Michal came out to meet him.  Nothing can throw a wet blanket on a good time like an angry, bitter woman. She accosted David and tried to shame him about his behavior. Michal had let her anger and bitterness turn to hatred.

    David was not moved by her tirade. His heart was right with the Lord at that moment and he knew what he had done was approved by God. He let her know he would continue to worship the Lord who had chosen him to be king.

    The sad end to the story just says “And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.” (2 Samuel 6:23) Years of hurt, anger and bitterness had finally bubbled out and she bore the consequences. To be without a child in that day was a sign of God’s displeasure.  No doubt it was a continued source of pain for her to the end of her life.

    Michal had a right to be hurt by David actions – he’d abandoned her, taken other women and then forced her back with him. Sometimes we have the right to be hurt by others actions or words, but we must not allow that hurt to fester into bitterness and anger. It’s for our own good that we must forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.

    “Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God’s generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.”     (Hebrews 12:14-16, The Message)

    By choosing to hold on to her anger, bitterness and hurt, Michal missed all the blessings that could have been hers. She was left out of David’s generosity. She could have joined the party and received the blessing David wanted to share with his household. She could possibly even had a child.

    What blessings are we missing by holding on to things from the past? If we want the Holy Spirit to heal our past hurts, we must first chose to forgive and chose to let go of any bitterness we may be holding on to.  Sometimes we don’t feel like we can forgive but we’re not called to do it on our own power. We can’t. We may not even want to. But through the power of the Holy Spirit, God will give us the grace to forgive if we make the decision and chose to forgive. And with forgiveness comes peace. With forgiveness comes the joy of knowing we’re walking in obedience to God.

    Peace and blessings to you all from our Lord Jesus Christ
    Dee

  • March 26, 2009

    I’ve been cleaning house and clearing out some clutter. I cleaned out the pantry and threw out some stuff that was stale or expired and probably not that good for us when it was fresh. All this cleaning makes me wonder how many of us are walking around with emotional garbage, that’s expired and bad for us. But like the ignored pudding mixes and stale crackers in my pantry, we’ve hung on to it.

    Many times we hang on to emotional hurts because of fear to let them out; we feel shame about them so instead of seeking help, we hide it and hang on to the hurt. It’s even sadder when those hurts were caused by someone else and we had no control over it. Like sexual assault.

    How many women have been either molested or raped and are like I was for many years, walking around, wounded and fearful. Afraid of being hurt again, afraid of someone finding out.  I was very sure that if I told anyone about what happened, they would say it was my fault. After all I was with someone my parents trusted and was a friend. I only told my husband after we’d been married many years and I felt safe enough to tell him. He was angry, but not at me. Then it happened to someone close to me. She did not have to tell me what had happened; I recognized the signs in her eyes. I knew her pain and tried to talk to her about it, but she was afraid to tell me. Afraid I would judge her. It took her a long time to finally admit to me what had happened. It was not her fault, but she took the blame and the shame.

    As women we do ourselves and other women a great disservice by continuing to carry the shame for something that’s not our fault. Let the men who did it feel the shame. Once we come out into the open and talk about what happened, we take back our power. If we are open about what happened to us, we will begin to heal. Once we’re healed, we will be in a position to help our sisters.

    According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey there were 248,300 sexual assaults in 2007.  That means that every 2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is sexually assaulted. Sexual assault is the most under reported crime against individuals. One study shows that only 16% of all assaults are reported to the police. Another university study reported that 1 in 5 college women said they’d been forced to have sexual intercourse.  It happens to someone every 2 minutes.

    Bad things happen to us in this life, but God offers healing and help if we only cry out to Him.

    “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor;
    He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to [those who are] bound;
    To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
    To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”     (Isa 61:1-3, NJKV)

    He wants to heal your broken heart. He wants to free you from the prison of shame. He wants to comfort you from mourning. He will give you beauty in living a joyful life for the ashes of despair. He will take that spirit of heaviness and give you a garment of praise. It will be a beautiful thing and God  will be glorified in you.

    Peace and blessings.

    Dee

  • A WOMAN TO BE PRAISED

    “A worthy woman who can find? For her price is far above rubies”. (Proverbs 31:10, American Standard Version)

    I have a lovely friend at church we call Miss Dorothy. A little past 90 years old, Miss Dorothy has beautiful snow white hair and piercing blue eyes, but her real beauty comes from her gentle and loving spirit. A person does not have to be around her very long until they see Jesus in her. She is a tiny woman and looks very frail, but she goes out and walks every morning. It’s a rare Sunday that you don’t find her in church and Sunday school class. She ministers to friends and loved ones by sending them cards and letters. Yes, she still writes letters that go through the mail. She wants no credit or recognition for what she does, but she blesses the countless number of people she’s known through the years. I want to be just like her when I grow up.


    “The heart of her husband trusteth in her, And he shall have no lack of gain.
    She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life.”     (Proverbs 31:11-12, American Standard Version)
    “However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” (Ephesians 5:33, New International Version)

    Miss Dorothy’s late husband was a pastor and I suspect his life and ministry were blessed by having such a godly wife as his partner. When she talks about her husband, the light in her eyes tells you how much she loved and respected him. All of us wives could learn by following her example.

    “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; And the law of kindness is on her tongue.” (Proverbs 31: 26, American Standard Version)

    When I was in a Bible class with Miss Dorothy, she was never quick to voice an opinion as some were. We usually had to beg her to share her thoughts or what she’d learned. But when she did speak, it was worth hearing. Her daughter-in-law told me that for Christmas this year she gave her children copies of her journals she’d kept over the years, telling the story of her life. What a wonderful gift!

    “Her children rise up, and call her blessed; Her husband [also], and he praiseth her, [saying]: Many daughters have done worthily, But thou excellest them all.
    Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain; [But] a woman that feareth Jehovah, she shall be praised.”     (Proverbs 31:28-30, American Standard Version)

    Peace and blessings

    Dee

  • TO ALL MY SISTERS

    I only have one blood sister who grew up in the same household as I did and I have two sisters by marriage. I have a few sisters who God brought into my life at a time when I needed them most and bonded our hearts together in the love of the Lord. I have sisters that I go to church with and that run in the same social circles I’m in. But I also have thousands of sisters that I’ll probably never meet face to face in this life, but will only get to know when we meet in heaven someday.
    To all of you, I want to say “God loves you!” It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’re in, He wants me to tell you that He loves you beyond anything you can ever imagine. He loved you even before you were born and He has called you by name.


    So, here’s to you all “God loves you!”

    Peace and blessings.
    Dee