Power Women.

We are finishing off our series by looking at some examples of people who ran their God race and finished strong. In the list of people who have run their God race and finished strong are some amazing women. It is easy to look at the Bible and see women as peripheral. But that is not God’s heart. God cares about women and He sees us and cares about us. Otherwise, why would Jesus bother with the woman at the well.

Women are every bit as created in the image of God as men and we have value and strength. We’ll start off by looking at Sarah, since we just finished talking about her man, Abraham. Abraham could not fulfill the promise of being a father of many nations by himself. Sarah was tied to his destiny.

Genesis 17:17-19, “Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” So, Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!” But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.”

Abraham and Sarah’s destinies were connected because they were married to each other. Finishing their God race took both of them believing in God individually and coming together in unity. Sarah was not just a prop in the story. Women have their own race to run. Their God destiny to fulfill.

Hebrews 11:11 says, “Sarah’s faith embraced God’s miracle power to conceive even though she was barren and was past the age of childbearing, for the authority of her faith rested in the One who made the promise, and she tapped into his faithfulness.” See that, she had her own faith independent of Abraham. Abraham’s faith put together with Sarah’s faith meant God was able to do the impossible.

In case you think, well Sarah’s part was to birth Isaac. Mary, the mother of Jesus’ role was also to birth Jesus. Is our God destiny as women limited to birthing children and helping the men look good? No. Queen Esther is not known for her children, in fact as far as I am aware, I don’t even think the Bible discusses whether or not she had children or how many. Yet she was vital to stop what would have been a massacre of the people of Israel.

Rahab, though of a shady past, was pivotal to the people of Israel being able to spy out the city of Jericho and later take their land of promise. She obeyed God at a time when it mattered most. God was so proud of her, He didn’t want her name to be forgotten, so He weaved the story of Jesus through this lowly woman, who once was a prostitute but saw an opportunity to follow God and took it.

In Judges 4 we see two strong women in action, Deborah and Jael working to secure the victory for Israel. Deborah was a strong, bold, godly woman, who was leader over Israel for some time. Don’t know anything about her children but I know she was a great leader who, followed God and was instrumental in getting victory for Israel at an important time in history. Jael, a woman, single handedly killed the commander of the opposing army. Don’t know anything about her children either.

The first people to preach the gospel, that Jesus had been raised from the dead, were women. Three women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of Jesus, see Luke 24:10. Now I could go on, but you get the picture. God loves women. He is not sexist or misogynistic. God uses men and women alike and He has a destiny for all of us. A part that we can play in building His Kingdom.

When it comes to following God or running our God race, our gender doesn’t matter. Neither does our past, our race nor our economic status. What matters is your “Yes” of obedience to God. Don’t be waiting to figure it all out or to understand it all. What are you going to do with what you know now? Are you going to take what you know and start running your race? Or are you waiting, hoping for a sign from heaven? Well, if you are waiting, this is your sign. This is the sign you have been waiting for. Start running. Take what you know and run with it.

I’ll end with this; Galatians 3:26-29 says, “You have all become true children of God by faith in Jesus Christ! Faith immersed you into Christ, and now you are covered and clothed with his life. And we no longer see each other in our former state—Jew or non-Jew, rich or poor,  male or female—because we’re all one through our union with Jesus Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are now Abraham’s “child” and a true heir of all his blessings because of the promise God made to Abraham!“

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.