God Is For Women

On Sunday, we continued our series on the book of Ruth and considered what the Scriptures have to say regarding women. Conversations on gender roles can often be challenging, but our life experiences and the Scriptures push us to have them. And so with grace and love for each other, we allow our hearts and minds to be shaped by God’s Word.

Here are a few thoughts coming out of Sunday:

• God is for women and he does not see women as lesser than men. While God has designed men and women to be different in their roles, in Christ, we are equal in value, worth, and standing before God (Gal 3:28).
• The identity of women is secure in Christ. Whether you’re single, married, divorced or widowed; stay at home or work in the marketplace; have kids or do not. None of these things ultimately define the daughters of God (1 John 3:1-2).
• Like Naomi, Ruth, and Mary (Lk 10:38-42) – you are theologians. You get to be students of Christ who sit at his feet and study the Scriptures. Theological study is not meant for a specific group of people, but for all of God’s children. Allow it to not simply be an intellectual pursuit, but a spiritual one that allows you to walk with God through both the bright and dark seasons of life. (Here’s an article that might be helpful)

At Seven Mile Road, we have countless examples of how God is using women for his redemptive purposes:

• Our Sunday school and nursery is mostly lead by our women. They schedule numerous volunteers, manage curriculum, and do a host of other unseen tasks so that our kids are loved and cared for. Through their tireless work, they are presenting the gospel of Christ to our children that they might know Him and be saved.
• There are many moms at SMR. The gift of motherhood to our children is immense. It’s an opportunity to teach, correct, and love little ones who are discovering the world in all of its beauty and brokenness. Whether your calling is to stay at home or work a 9 to 5, your kids are blessed by God through all that you do for them.
• You are a light in a dark world. You are missionaries in your communities, your social circles, and at the office. You get to influence men and women through your words, actions, and beliefs. You make known the riches of the glory of Christ to your families, friends, coworkers, and neighbors (Col 1:27).
• There are so many other ways women serve at SMR: as SoulCare leaders, on the band, the welcome and hospitality teams, as those who organize and serve on both missions teams abroad and to serve our local neighborhoods here at home. They tutor, they feed, they teach, they lead, they open their homes. Seven Mile Road is incredibly blessed by all that you do to serve us and to serve others – to the glory of God. Thank you.

For all of this, we need grace from God. Both men and women – we fail, we struggle, we sin.

But thanks be to God that our worth is not in all that we can accomplish, but that it is in all that Jesus has already and perfectly accomplished for us (Heb 12:2). And so this frees us to live as men and women, with nothing to prove, who can be secure in who we are in Christ. We get to lock arms with one another, lead by the sovereign hand of God to restore the brokenness of this world and to build His Kingdom.

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