A Woman of Faith

What does this title phrase mean in the picture above to you? Can we as women be a “Woman of Faith” and only be that woman in a Sunday, worship service, or does it mean something more? Of course, it means something more. For years I have seen this scenario play out not only once a church service is over, but also in Bible studies, at church social events and other Christian sponsored concerts, in the Bible bookstore and other places.

When I recall the stories from the New Testament that those who walked with Jesus during His 3-year ministry, I see the same thing happening. The disciples jockeying for position as to who is most loved, who is best at thi or that, who can heal and who cannot heal, who is good with the money and so on. You see it is not a new thing at all.

What if we look at the example Jesus set for us and we really dive deep into His daily behavior, the tone of His words, what He actually said, and what His daily routine was?

See if you can turn to a passage in your Bible where you can answer these questions:

What was Jesus’ daily routine?

Where can you find examples of this routine in the scripture?

Where was Jesus’ tone of voice loud and where was He upset when He used this tone of voice?

Where is this incident in your Bible?

How and where did Jesus teach those following Him ~ there are so many passages on this?

Locate one or two in your Bible and read those moments.

What were some moments in Jesus’ life, when He was disappointed in the “ask” of His disciples?

Where did you find an example of a disappointment in your Bible?

Do you recall any time during Jesus’ lifetime, when He laughed or had fun?

Where are those examples in the New Testament?

What story in your Bible do you read about the disciples trying to solve a huge problem when Jesus asked them to do something?

What was the answer and what was the reaction of the disciples?

Where is that example in your Bible?

You see Jesus was fully human and fully divine, and yet he experienced many if not all of the same moments, decisions and emotions that we too have, and yet, He set a “perfect example” of how to react and handle these same moments some 2,000 years ago.

Are you expecting me to give you the answers to the six questions posed above? I am not going to do that. Giving you the answers would negate learning for you.

The lesson in this post is this: “If you participate in church, a Bible study, a church sponsored event and once you leave the event, you forget what you just experienced…then you did not learn a thing…much less begin to evaluate the experience and put some part or all of it into your life.”

Were you in church this past Sunday? What was the essence of the message?

Did you attend a Bible Study recently? What learning did you get and how did you put it into practice in your daily life?

Many love a Christian Concert where their favorite vocalist sang. If you attended a concert, what was the opening song? What was the closing song?

Sometimes we walk through life and do not notice most of what surrounds us. When I was a kid, my parents knew the song of the birds in our yard. I knew kids who were bird song imitators! Now that’s a skill! Do you even hear the songs of the birds in your environment? I think that is why I dislike cities so much. The only noise I hear is car, police, emergency vehicles sirens, honking horns, and not a single bird song can be heard, above all the city noise.

We look for something or someone to disagree with, something we just do not like or want to tolerate anymore in our lives and environments. We are tied to our desk, our computers and cell phones.

We essentially miss all the blessings of God around us, in favor of the next thing.

As summer draws to a close in August, savor the few days you have left of sunshine and free time and completely disconnect from technology. Use that feature on your phone and email that you are “out of the office!”

Fall is just around the corner, school begins, the conference season begins in October, and holidays abound along with teacher-in-service days, and life get very busy again. Take heed to what was put before you through this blog post and just do some serious “reflecting” on where you’ve been and what you have prioritized in the first half of this year.