I want to spend today reflecting on the past 30, or 31, days of Breakthrough stories we’ve been so privileged to read. The resurrection testimonies began as a desire in my heart to showcase the amazing love, grace and power of the God Whose love for us took Him to the grave, and there conquered all that ever had the power of holding us down.
But, day after day, that mission was molded into something more. What we brought to God, He took into His own hands and gave back to us in poetic form – demonstrating that our stories are stories He has written to showcase the fierce beauty within what He has created. Our lives, and our stories, were always meant to reflect the reality that we have been designed for so much more than we often realize…both within ourselves and as we look at each other.
That is the beauty of story, isn’t it? In reaching back, all of the women who shared re-discovered the incredible intentionality of grace, and the irrevocable mark of destiny within their words. Pulling the book off the shelf and dusting off the moments of their lives reminded them not only of God’s incredible goodness, but of their incredible worth. It resurrected an oft forgotten but ever powerful reality: that we have been created for a time and a purpose that are too great to be forgotten about.
In a book called Beautiful Girlhood, by Karen Andreola, the author writes, provokingly:
“Womanhood stands for all that is pure and clean and noble. She who does not make the world better for having lived in it has failed to be all that a woman should be.”
Sadly, many women have succumbed to the lie that says otherwise. When I searched for images of womanhood this morning, for pictures to add to this blog, I was outraged at the number of photos that were considered “adult content.” Womanhood has become, for so many, something vile and seductive. And in that bondage to an image that exists merely to please the appetites of men, our identity and mission have been sacrificed on the altar of mere appearance and its narcotic payoff of shallow appeal. When we settle for an image that is superficial, we fail to read the stories behind the images, and the unique, true beauty that marks womanhood is lost within a generation.
I want to encourage you to re-read the breakthrough stories from this past month, over and over again, and to share them with all the women you know, because it’s time to resurrect what’s nearly been lost in this generation of women. It is time to rediscover our divine design, and all that God is doing to unearth the treasures He has placed within us. It’s time to see within each other the so-much-more that has been tucked beneath our outer appearances. It’s time to go deeper, to open our lives to each other at a much more intimate level.
Because there is a now-future history that belongs to us, and I don’t want the books that will be passed down to our children and their generation to say anything less about the women of our day than God intended. I want the mark of our lives to be evident, not watered down. I want the noble and the brave, the pure and the shining, to be preserved and held up for all the world to see…so that the hope of a God Who still has such good plans for us remains evident and undeniable to all the world.
See, my story, and all of your stories, ultimately and always ought to lead us and others back the irrefutable reality that God is not only real, but has created us to live such remarkable lives that the next generation will be captivated by what they read and what they hear. I have grown so weary of seeing the youth and the women of our day being captivated by stories that are: 1) not real; and 2) born in the imaginations of those who cannot see divine design. My heart has been crying out for stories born of truth, purity and a beauty beyond the mark of current culture; and in your stories, I have found the answer to that cry. In our stories, God has reminded me that what the world needs, we carry within us.
So I want to ask you today, Dear Woman of Breakthrough:
Is the story you’re living good enough to captivate a generation? Is it good enough to captivate your own heart, and lead you deeper into the heart of the God Who has written it?
Are you intentionally living in such a way that your story will capture your God-given purpose, and leave it as a legacy for those who will come behind you?
Are you making the world a better place – not just for yourself – but for the generations you are surrounded by, and for the generations that will inherit what you leave behind?
Does your story inspire other women to become the women they were created to be, or does it leave them where they are, in search of more which they don’t know how to find?
Does the inspiration of your life impress for merely a moment, or is it fueled by the breath of the Spirit of God, Who resurrects hope and compels the dead to live again?
This is not an appeal to feminism. I believe God has made women great, but not so that we can wield our muscle and tout our accomplishments as a way to raise ourselves up above another race or class of humanity. This is about becoming all we’ve been created to be, and about rediscovering our true purpose, so that we can live it out in partnership with God and each other, to bless the world with our beautiful lives…as has always been the blueprint.
Dear Woman of Breakthrough, let the stories you’ve heard inspire you to begin partnering with God to write your own. May you be compelled to examine your life and uncover the great plans of God hidden within it. Let these stories become the conversations you carry into your circle of friends and family, in order to encourage others to step into their so-much-more, as well. If the tongue is a fire, as the Scriptures say, let’s start an inferno of a different kind: let’s talk about the greatness God has put within women, and let’s talk about the potential of seizing that, rather than tear each other down and pick each other apart.
May the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart today, toward the daughters of the King (including yourself), be acceptable in the sight of the God Who made us with divine, glorious purpose. Go forth, dear Women of Breakthrough, and break through, into your created destiny! You were born for such a time as this!
{Photo images courtesy of http://www.pixabay.com}
She Dances Over Graves 