Proverbs 31 as a professional woman - Part 48
SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY
Yolanda KalengaWINDHOEK
Dear loyal readers, I trust that you’re blessed and highly favoured.
Thank you for joining me on this journey as we continue to unpack success principle ten for Proverbs 31 as a professional woman: “She’s strong, courageous and discerning”. Please read parts 36-47 for more context.
In parts 46-47 we addressed some of the mistakes that we make while attempting to trust in the Lord’s strength and in part 47 we were called to “repent for wanting to trust in the Lord’s strength only when it suits us.”
We were encouraged by Hebrews 11:6, which reminds us that: “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Pleasing the Lord starts with you having faith and believing in Him – and this includes trusting in His will, way, timing and process.
Sometimes we know what God has said in His Word or to us by way of revelation or instruction – yet, due to lack of faith, pride or rebellion, we inadvertently try to undermine His strength to do what He said because, like Adam, you want to please Eve by breaking God’s protocol – thereby incurring God’s wrath and facing a life-altering punishment. Or like Samson, you start off by trusting in God’s strength but later become proud; you think your human strength is what marks your greatness and later you’re facing life under God’s judgement as a blind prisoner being paraded as a mockery by unbelievers – and then you cry out to God for strength.
Whose strength? God’s strength – as revealed through you. I have said it before: God doesn’t need our strength, we need His strength, so let’s humble ourselves and repent for mindlessly thinking that we will show God we can do it without Him or that we’ll take care of this thing in our human strength and let God know where He can step in and be God on that other thing that needs a God-level intervention.
That is pride and rebellion. Let us repent.
The display of your human strength is still God’s strength revealed through you because He created you in His image. So, let us humble ourselves and repent.
The biblical account of King Saul versus David contrasts trusting God transactionally versus wholeheartedly (despite the circumstances).
In 1 Samuel 15 you find King Saul, enjoying God’s favour and strength that helped him to defeat his enemies, yet his transactional mindset towards the Lord was exposed by the fact that he was focused on what he could get from God – starting with the glory of the victory against his enemies, the spoils from that victory and the admiration of fellow people – and exposing his vainglory by setting up a monument to commemorate his victory, not the Lord’s victory, because he didn’t thank the Lord for the victory.
King Saul’s disobedience led to him losing favour and his kingship being rejected by God. Although he noted that he had partially obeyed God, he still wanted to hide behind the fear of, obedience to and influence of other people to justify his disobedience against God’s direct instructions.
He did not acknowledge his rebellion to God – because he asked Prophet Samuel to pardon his sin, instead of asking God for forgiveness from a place of repentance.
In conversation with Prophet Samuel, King Saul referred to God as “the Lord, your God”. Samuel’s God, not his. Meaning, when it suited King Saul, then God was his Lord – but when he couldn’t access his grace, glory, power and strength any longer, he no longer recognised him as his God.
That’s how we sometimes are.
God is our God and our strength when it suits us, but when we are in trouble with Him or when He doesn’t show up the way we want (according to our will, not His, but with Heaven’s resources and backing), then He becomes someone else’s God.
Let us repent to God against pride and rebellion.
In contrast, David, a man, although flawed and who made mistakes – his life was marked by devotion to and reliance on God’s love and faithfulness.
David’s reliance on God’s strength was not a performance, it was wholehearted, relational and a genuine pursuit that revealed his heart and His love for God as his everything. In Psalms 18:1 AMP, David said: “I love You [fervently and devotedly], O Lord, my strength.”
This is the protocol that the Lord wants us to follow. To move in humble submission to Him, loving Him with our all (Mark 12:30) and acknowledging and trusting in His will, strength, plans, purposes, promises, desires and prophecies for us – for His glory.
Shalom.
Dear loyal readers, I trust that you’re blessed and highly favoured.
Thank you for joining me on this journey as we continue to unpack success principle ten for Proverbs 31 as a professional woman: “She’s strong, courageous and discerning”. Please read parts 36-47 for more context.
In parts 46-47 we addressed some of the mistakes that we make while attempting to trust in the Lord’s strength and in part 47 we were called to “repent for wanting to trust in the Lord’s strength only when it suits us.”
We were encouraged by Hebrews 11:6, which reminds us that: “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
Pleasing the Lord starts with you having faith and believing in Him – and this includes trusting in His will, way, timing and process.
Sometimes we know what God has said in His Word or to us by way of revelation or instruction – yet, due to lack of faith, pride or rebellion, we inadvertently try to undermine His strength to do what He said because, like Adam, you want to please Eve by breaking God’s protocol – thereby incurring God’s wrath and facing a life-altering punishment. Or like Samson, you start off by trusting in God’s strength but later become proud; you think your human strength is what marks your greatness and later you’re facing life under God’s judgement as a blind prisoner being paraded as a mockery by unbelievers – and then you cry out to God for strength.
Whose strength? God’s strength – as revealed through you. I have said it before: God doesn’t need our strength, we need His strength, so let’s humble ourselves and repent for mindlessly thinking that we will show God we can do it without Him or that we’ll take care of this thing in our human strength and let God know where He can step in and be God on that other thing that needs a God-level intervention.
That is pride and rebellion. Let us repent.
The display of your human strength is still God’s strength revealed through you because He created you in His image. So, let us humble ourselves and repent.
The biblical account of King Saul versus David contrasts trusting God transactionally versus wholeheartedly (despite the circumstances).
In 1 Samuel 15 you find King Saul, enjoying God’s favour and strength that helped him to defeat his enemies, yet his transactional mindset towards the Lord was exposed by the fact that he was focused on what he could get from God – starting with the glory of the victory against his enemies, the spoils from that victory and the admiration of fellow people – and exposing his vainglory by setting up a monument to commemorate his victory, not the Lord’s victory, because he didn’t thank the Lord for the victory.
King Saul’s disobedience led to him losing favour and his kingship being rejected by God. Although he noted that he had partially obeyed God, he still wanted to hide behind the fear of, obedience to and influence of other people to justify his disobedience against God’s direct instructions.
He did not acknowledge his rebellion to God – because he asked Prophet Samuel to pardon his sin, instead of asking God for forgiveness from a place of repentance.
In conversation with Prophet Samuel, King Saul referred to God as “the Lord, your God”. Samuel’s God, not his. Meaning, when it suited King Saul, then God was his Lord – but when he couldn’t access his grace, glory, power and strength any longer, he no longer recognised him as his God.
That’s how we sometimes are.
God is our God and our strength when it suits us, but when we are in trouble with Him or when He doesn’t show up the way we want (according to our will, not His, but with Heaven’s resources and backing), then He becomes someone else’s God.
Let us repent to God against pride and rebellion.
In contrast, David, a man, although flawed and who made mistakes – his life was marked by devotion to and reliance on God’s love and faithfulness.
David’s reliance on God’s strength was not a performance, it was wholehearted, relational and a genuine pursuit that revealed his heart and His love for God as his everything. In Psalms 18:1 AMP, David said: “I love You [fervently and devotedly], O Lord, my strength.”
This is the protocol that the Lord wants us to follow. To move in humble submission to Him, loving Him with our all (Mark 12:30) and acknowledging and trusting in His will, strength, plans, purposes, promises, desires and prophecies for us – for His glory.
Shalom.
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