Virtuous: A Devotional for Womenਨਮੂਨਾ

Worthiness

Key Verse:

“You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one.” - John 8:15 (NIV)

Reading:

I believe that as humans, one of the hardest things is to stop passing judgment on others and ourselves. Oftentimes, that judgment doesn't even stem from something that happened recently, but due to past behaviors. Have you ever sat back and thought about a mistake you made in the past and felt overwhelming shame and embarrassment? Maybe those feelings from a past mistake consume you daily. We don't have to hold on to that judgment because we've found Jesus' salvation. The salvation that is in Jesus is complete and total. He saves to the uttermost until we accept our position as beautiful brides pure, lovely, and worthy.

I'm going to share some things I don't tell a lot of people, but I have a really ugly past, and it can still bring sadness when a memory is jogged of something that I did. I was an angry person. I was proud and arrogant, and extremely disrespectful. I was married and divorced by the time I was 21; something that I had sworn would never be. I had become addicted to prescription valium and codeine, and thankfully, my brother intervened and ordered the doctor to stop giving me pills. He threw the rest away, and although I was free from that, a week later, I began running from the person that I had become. I was married again at 23 to an abusive alcoholic. And I was desperate for just one flicker of hope because I believed that it had ruined my life. Jeremiah 29:11, scrolled across the bottom of the television screen one morning, I don't know why I had the TV on, I don't know why it was on a Christian Broadcast. But I saw the Scripture and God's promise, "I know the plans I have for you," and my heart grabbed on to the promise with everything in me. God began to speak to my heart. Now, something that's a little bit sad is that although Jesus saved me at 23, I wasn't freed from the sense of shame until just a few years ago. That's nearly 40 years of holding on to something that Jesus had already cleansed me of. The pastor of the church we now attend saw the sadness in me and through his kindness and his encouragement, he showed me the heart of my problem was the sense of inadequacy that came from not fully believing that my Savior had forgiven, cleansed, and sincerely wanted me to take my full share of the inheritance as a brand new creation. Now, I have finally shed the shame of my past once and for all. I want to encourage you to stop treating people who've been saved from that shame as if they should pay for it. We all should pay for our sins, but that's why God's salvation is so incredible. Who are we to believe He should save us from our shame and not others? Every born-again believer deserves to know and function as a dearly beloved child of the King of the universe, a full member of God's family. Every lost individual deserves to know that there's hope for reconciliation in Jesus.

I'm going to ask you some questions that might seem a little odd. Would you be friends with someone who you knew was engaged in prostitution? Would you think that they were in God's favor? If you had a friend who wanted to have a baby and said they would do it by any means possible? Would you think that they could be in God's favor? We're going to read about a few women who seem like there is no way that God could see them as righteous and holy, and yet he does. I'm going to encourage you to go read the following scripture, and then come back, and we'll summarize what we read. Joshua 2:1-24, Joshua 6:22-25, Genesis 19:30-38, Genesis 38. Deuteronomy 23:3-4, Ruth 1:1-4, Matthew 1:1-5.

My first thought was that these women seem so different than what I've always been taught a virtuous woman is. Matthew 1:1-5 shows us the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and amongst them you can find these "not so virtuous women". They are considered virtuous enough, by God in His sight, to be ancestors of our Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. It isn't just in the Old Testament that we witness this. In the New Testament, Jesus used a woman caught in adultery to confront the religious leaders of their sin. He also used the woman at the well to bring salvation to an entire town. So we might ask, Why did God include these people in the ancestry of His son? What was it that He valued enough to honor them in this way? Well, Rahab had faith that God would continue to act on behalf of His people and that he would also protect her if she protected them. Tamar had faith in the trustworthiness that God would honor her rights as a widow that were provided under the law. Ruth had faith in the God of her mother-in-law; she said, "Your God, mine shall be". Why do you think it's important, then, that God honored these women? What do you think that He's trying to tell us about how He views our worth? I want you to take time to think this through and write about what God says about you.

Reflection:

1. Biblical Women: Consider the women we talked about today (Rahab, the woman at the well, Ruth, Tamar). Why do you think it's important that God honored these women? What do you think He's trying to tell us about how He views our worth?
2. Personal Barriers: Do you have things that keep you from feeling like you're worthy to be used by God and live a life free from shame and guilt?
3. Renewed Vision: How can you see yourself and others through the eyes of faith, as God does?

Prayer:

Today, I pray that each person reading this will come to know without a doubt how deeply and immensely You love them. Help them to feel Your pleasure in their lives and to trust fully in You. Guide them to become victorious and virtuous, reflecting Your grace and love in all they do. Bless them richly today and always. In Jesus' name, Amen.