There are so many opinions and expectations in this world for women. Many of us at one season or another have felt the pressure to be a superhero at every single role that we fill in our life. The pressure to be Super Mom, Super Wife, Super Christian, etc; the pressure to do it all, and while we’re doing it all, the pressure to appear like we have it all together.
Because of our inability to fulfill these worldly and/or self-imposed expectations, many of us become imprisoned with guilt, anxiety, depression, and shame. We become slaves to lies and false pretenses about who we are. Although I’m guilty of it, I find it rather interesting that we give society such a voice in determining our worth and value. Why? Because they didn’t create women. It was God who designed man and woman from the very beginning (Gen. 2). It was God who breathed life into our lungs.
In Genesis 3, we learn that Satan spoke lies to Eve in the garden, “Did God really say…?” Satan is still trying to get us, God’s image bearers, to believe lies about ourselves and lies about God…because he knows we are a threat. He thinks if we can get us to accept these lies as truths, then we won’t be able to advance the kingdom of God. Lies like “Does God really love you? Did God really say that? You’re too messed up. No one will ever really love you. You can’t be forgiven of that that. You’ll always struggle with that sin.” Satan longs for us to get caught up in our ourselves and these lies with the purpose of creating shame in us, hoping we will turn away from God, hoping that we will believe God’s promises aren’t true for us.
Where do we go from here? We go straight to God’s Word – the source of life. Only there do we find the truth about who we are in Christ. Only there do we find the truth about God’s character, the Gospel, and His calling for our life.
Here are just a few things that your Heavenly Father does say about you: You are LOVED (Jn. 3:16). You are a CHILD of God (Jn.1:12). You are saved by GRACE (Eph. 2:8). You are FORGIVEN (Col. 2:13). You are ACCEPTED (Rom. 15:7). You are of GREAT value (Ps. 139:13). You are COMPLETE in CHRIST (Col. 2:10).
Let’s learn to be women of The Word who are so consumed and in love with God that we aren’t swayed by the opinions and standards of others. Nancy Leigh Demoss says,
“Is it conceivable that someone who did not recognize or appreciate fine art would toss a masterpiece into the trash? Would that make the painting any less valuable? Not at all. The true worth of the art would be seen when an art collector spotted the painting and said, ‘That is a priceless piece and I am willing to pay any amount to acquire it.’ When God sent His only Son, Jesus, to this earth to bear your sin and mine on the cross, He put a price tag on us-He declared the value of our soul to be greater than the value of the whole world.”
Let’s stop running to society, social media, people, ______________ (fill in the blank) to tell us who we are. We will never measure up to their expectations. And guess what? We don’t need to! The concept of “needing to measure up” or “needing to be good enough” is very worldly. We’re not enough and we’ll never measure up. If we were enough, then Jesus’ death on the cross would be in vain and grace would have no purpose in our life. When you have thoughts like, “I’m not enough,” don’t let that lead you down the self-pity trail. Instead, look up and fix your eyes on Christ. Let those thoughts lead you to the Gospel, to the cross, to his grace that was poured out on your behalf. God knew that apart from Christ, you could never measure up. God doesn’t need us to have it all together. What God desires from us is to recognize that we don’t have it all together so we instead look to Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). As we come to him, he is faithful to complete the work he began in us (Phil. 1:6), sanctifying our hearts and our minds into more of His likeness.
Kelly Todd