I was invited to a woman’s Christian book club, where I had to read a book called “The Right Kind of Strong.” The author is Mary A. Kassian. Lots of good teaching for women (even men) to take to heart.
One thing that came out to me is how women can think they are strong ‘on their own’ but are actually WEAK women; that they can do anything men can do, and even do better. While women that KNOW they are weak on their own and depend on the Lord’s strength – are actually STRONG women. Their trust in the truth from God about who they are and who God is, gives them an inner strength that weak women do not have even though they pretend to have.
Almost twenty years ago, the Lord told me to write a book on the Proverbs 31 woman of the Bible. And yes, it was the Lord Jesus Himself who told me clearly: “For it is time to show her favor – the appointed time has come. My servants take pity on her dust.” Why was I do to this? The life of the Proverbs 31 woman IN HIS CHURCH, was dying out. Men with faith need a true feminine helpmate to fulfill their purpose doing the work of God.
The Lord revealed to me, first of all that ‘I’ needed to follow the example of the Proverbs 31 Woman; the woman who IS the RIGHT kind of strong. So I took each verse to study out with the Holy Spirit.
I compared her to myself and the women of our day; how women have slowly drifted from God’s design of true womanhood. I felt convicted myself as my Lord wanted me to see how I was drifting. He woke me up to this one morning in the Word with His letter to His church of Ephesus. The Lord first states the good He sees but then reveals what He won’t put up with, and that He won’t reward in the end but rather condemn….
“Yet, I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first (Jesus Christ, my first TRUE love). Carol, consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place…hear what the Spirit of the Lord says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:4-6 (Jesus wrote 7 letters to His churches whereas 5 were told to repent of something He won’t put up with. The other 2 types He commends and rewards. (Rev. 2 and 3)
There has been a ‘progressive’ drifting from truth in what a man is, and what a woman is, and how to raise up healthy, happy and productive children, and what a true family is. Drifting happens when lies are believed and lived out.
Weak women listen to the wrong voices on all kinds of issues, and then wonder why their life is disappointing and so very hard to live. Strong women listen to the truth from God in His Word and rely on His ‘indwelling’ Holy Spirit to give them the understanding, confidence and strength they need to live out their true purpose in life, gratefully rewarded with God’s favor and blessings all along the way. Even in her times of hardship and persecution, she thrives!
The book brought out another difference in a ‘truly’ weak woman and a ‘truly’ strong woman, in how worldly women look at godly women as weak, old-fashioned, stuck and shameful. Truly weak women only pretend to be strong, keeping their weaknesses hidden or denied – to hold up the image they want.
The Lord sees us all so differently than we see ourselves because He sees the heart and root/seed of what we have come to believe and live out about ourselves, and about Him.
Truly strong women are open about their weakness and proudly admit that they depend on the Lord each day. They are careful about who they listen to and trust. They are truly feminine, according to God’s design of a woman. And, they respect true masculinity in how God made men.
Women put men down by criticizing the male ego. Truth: man’s ego comes from God for the purpose to rule, lead and take care of what God has given the man to care for that God did NOT give to women. But when a man becomes ‘full of himself,’ in rebellion to God, he becomes an egotist: thinking of himself first – to get all he selfishly wants. Egoism is the ideology that the devil teaches and seeds in men, and even women.
God created man first for a very good reason, and then He took a rib from man to form man’s helpmate in life: woman. Women are gifted differently from men, for a very good reason, but when we buck our Creator’s system (His will and blessings) we are not all we could be and where we end up giving the Lord praise and glory.
Women who hate the idea of being their husband’s “helpmate,” are truly weak women. Is it any wonder then, why in America we see increasing homosexuality with men wanting to be women, women wanting to be men, even mutilating their bodies. We see children being taught to believe that they are in the wrong physical body when they are simply going through puberty. We see women hating men, men abusing women, the ‘family and home’ out of order and unable to enjoy all that God intended.
“Pretenders don’t have faith in God’s firm foundation (of biblical truth). They don’t trust it. They don’t abide in it.” (quote from book) The Bible says, “They have the appearance of godliness but do not have its power.” The power for what? The power to become the woman (or man) God honors and crowns in the end.
“God works through every human ability that is surrendered to Him…even in the absence of any ability whatsoever on our part.” (quote from book)
God gave each of us strengths as well as weaknesses. Our talents are from Him to develop and serve Him with. Our weaknesses are there to draw us to our Lord and Savior for who HE IS. One weakness we ALL have is thinking we have the power to save ourselves from the wrath of God on our sin.” Oh I’m a ‘good’ person! Look at all the good works I do! How could God send ME to hell!” “God? I don’t believe in God, heaven nor hell.” Both are fools and in for a BIG surprise, sadly.
“Human strength is a fragile illusion. It often fails when we encounter difficult circumstances. Suddenly, out of the blue, life can fall apart. An accident. A grim diagnosis. The loss of a job. Calamity. Betrayal. Relationship breakdown. These are the times when we see how weak we really are.” (quote from book) And how ready God is to bring us through, and rejoicing with Him!
“I’m convinced that all the failures and flaws in our lives flow out of some sort of doctrinal error or deficiency.” (quote from book)
There’s a lot of false teaching in the world: in schools, universities, churches, homes, media news. You may have grown up thinking you must not show weakness, or to deny your fears. But fear is from God, as a gage and not a guide.
Or, you may have been told to let your heart lead you; if it feels good – do it! If it seems right to you then it must be right for you. But God says that “the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it.” If we go by the seat of our emotions – we will always be led astray to do what we shouldn’t have done, or say what we shouldn’t have said, or go where we shouldn’t have gone. REGRETS!
“When it comes to our emotions, we tend to start with how we feel, how we want to feel, or how others expect us to feel. But if we want our emotions to be set right, we need to start with God as our reference point…. Our emotions were created to reflect HIS emotions and put HIS feelings and HIS desires on display.” (quote from book)
Matin Luther said: “Sin bends the best gifts of God toward itself. We take this great gift of emotions and twist it around toward ourselves.” (quote from book)
“Emotions are not to be stifled or stamped out, but rather they are to propel us to God and godliness.” (quote from book)
“Emotions are powerful. Reason seems to stand little chance against the forces of fear, anger, hatred, jealousy, our whatever emotion is moving us.” (quote from book)
We sure do see today, in so many ways, that people are led by their emotions!
“Emotions are for ‘gauging’ our circumstances, not for ‘guiding’ us in our circumstances.” (quote from book)
God created emotion in us, just as He created us with a will of our own to choose, and a mind to reason, solve and invent, and a good conscience by which to repent and be at peace with God. But the will and mind along with our emotions are to be in balance – aligned with God’s will, mind and emotions.
“The Bible is God’s Holy Word. It defines for us what is TRUE and what is not. Therefore, we are to regard it as the ultimate standard of truth, the reference point by which every other claim to truthfulness is to be measured.” (quote from book)
There is so much more in this little book about the good qualities of womanhood and how we to see ourselves and God who loves us with His everlasting love!