Tuesday, November 1, 2011

A Woman's Worth

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." --Proverbs 31:10

Hello readers.  Welcome to my heart.  Let's begin.

Finally!  A King James Version verse that's better than the other translations! Hahaha, kidding.

I preached a message a few weeks ago titled Princesses of God to some fifth and sixth grade young ladies, and it was such an honor to pour into them.  We gave them all roses during the ministry time, it was awesome to watch their hearts melt after hearing God's word for them.  God has been working me deeply with this issue, something like a deep tissue massage---painful, but somehow relaxing.  So it was good for me to be able to share what God has been doing in my own life with these young ladies.  Now?  Are we ready for some transparency? If you're not, too bad. 

So, my struggles begin like many guys with addictions at a young age.  Exposed to things at a young age and no father around to change those views, so naturally they became my perspective on life.  And growing up in "black culture" and listening to rap and R&B where they were feeding me this consistent notion that women are sexy objects, and.....that's it.  Watching time after time after time women shaking their butts in music videos or allowing guys to use and dispose of them on a whim for cash or listening to them being call all sorts of things and not daughters of the King.....yeah, I was that guy.  And it shouldn't surprise anyone that I acted on these views---I mean come on, how else am I suppose to treat a women if this is all I've seen?  There is great power in influence and corruption, but no one seems to take it seriously.  I get asked a lot why I don't listen to secular music, and I don't give them the Holier Than Thou reason, "That's that devil music!"  But...I still say the same thing with this simple explanation, "I recognized it was influencing me away from God's standards."

So, let's talk about when and how I started to learn a woman's worth.  It heavily started this summer when I was around eight beautiful women of God during my internship at my church.  I was around these women four days out of the week, praying or being pouring into or serving together.  I recall one morning in chapel as I was praying God instructed me to turn around.  And when I did I saw these eight women, hands raised, eyes closed worshiping our God.  It was so beautiful to me, seeing them surrendered to God.  And God softly spoke to me, "This is how I want all my daughters." 

And in that moment, my perspective changed.  The lenses in which I saw women changed.  It went from always seeing girls as objects to seeing their potential in God.  It was the first time in my life that I saw a woman's worth, and it wasn't in what she knew about herself, it was from her potential.  I'll say it this way, it wasn't from what she was doing, it was from how God saw her.  Watching these eight women for three months greatly impacted my life.  Now that I see their potential, or rather how their Father sees them, it breaks my heart to watch women hide behind make up, or hide behind sex, or hide behind a man, or hide behind clothes, or behind whatever and its not God, because before a woman was able to find her worth in all of those meaningless things, God said she was worth it when He sent His son to die for her.  And you can find God's value on women so much in the Bible, when He commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, or the fact that Eve was crafted from Adam's rib, or when Adam was held responsible because He didn't protect Eve from being disobedient, so on and so forth. 

"So who can find a virtuous woman?  Her worth is far more than rubies."  Rubies are these beautiful, rare gemstones, our modern day equivalence to diamonds.  The most valuable and famous rubies are displayed in a museum in Washington D.C.  They're placed in these elegant glass displays so no one can touch them.  Reason?  Because the museum doesn't want just anybody touching these valuable rubies, because they might steal them, or harm them, or break them.  Sounds like John 10:10 huh?  "The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy."  And I've watched and taken a part in aiding the enemy to steal virginities, to steal value away from women, and this begins to kill them softly and slowly as they're fighting and doing whatever it takes to regain what was stolen from them, but in reality they're just further killing themselves and distancing themselves from God, which in the end, destroys them.  

These are God's daughters.  The Creator of the Universe's daughter. Elohim's daughters.  The Alpha and the Omega's daughters.

Ouch Claude.   

And the fact that God has to ask where can He find a virtuous woman should hurt us.  He knows it's rare, He knows its hard to find, just like those rubies.  Culture is going to laugh at you for dressing modestly, or saving yourself till marriage, or protecting your heart from them idiots like me that had no clue about love but threw the word around, only to sucker them into getting what I wanted.  Bunch of low lifes.  God helps us!

So, what am I saying here?  Again, where can God find a virtuous woman?  Where can He find them?  I long for the day to see a revival of women that are taking back their cities and communities and culture of being virtuous women.  Just like God is expecting men to rise above culture that says men are supposed to lust after women and misuse them and experience life, He's expecting the women to rise above culture that says women are beautiful only if they: put this on, where this, look like this, smell like this, etc.  You are beautiful.

You are beautiful.

You are beautiful.  And for whatever that's worth coming from me, I hope you receive it.  But if it means nothing coming from me, lets change how you're reading it.  Remember, God ordained this moment for you, and He wants you to know this..........

You're beautiful to Me.

Before you could gain that weight or grow that long hair or afford those clothes or lose your virginity or purchase that make up, you were beautiful to Me. Before it all, you were beautiful and worth it to ME.

Amen.  Amen.

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