The Woman Who Fears God – 4

The Christian Working Woman

What are you fearful of today? Did you know that we should be women of fear? The Proverbs 31 woman is described as a "woman who feared the Lord" and she was praised. This is the most important lesson we can learn from this ideal woman. Are you a woman who fears the Lord? If so, there are some specific things you will fear, and one of those is: The fear of getting off on some issue and losing the right focus One of the things that I fear greatly is getting out of balance and becoming an issue-oriented woman instead of a God-fearing woman. It would be very easy to do in this society with my personality, believe me. And I fear it, because I know that is one way Satan gets his foot in our doors. Many women in the last couple of generations have focused their lives and energies on righting all the wrongs done to women. To be sure there have been and still are discriminatory practices in our culture—including Christian institutions—which can be criticized, which should be changed, and which are not fair. And we may have some opportunities to try to effect some of those needed changes. That's fine in its proper place. But for us to become issue-oriented on women's rights so that the issue is more important to us than anything else is to be shoved into the world's mold of fighting for your rights. I keep reminding myself that the only way I can really help any woman is to point her to Jesus, who can free her from her sins and give her peace. Then she'll be free indeed. Paul wrote to the Romans that we are all slaves either of sin or of Christ. So instead of being in bondage to some issue, or becoming obsessive about fighting for our rights, I want to encourage women—and everyone else—to become slaves of righteousness, because when we die to ourselves we find life in Christ. I could help further the cause of women's rights 'til I'm blue in the face, and any progress made would be useless if the women are still slaves to sin. I want to fear not hearing the Lord say to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant," for I will stand before him someday for my life's work to be judged. I fear wasting the time and energy I have on things and issues that are not of eternal significance. That is godly fear.