"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord; she shall be praised." -Prov. 31:30
Last Friday night's Women's Ministry Meeting, I felt led of the Lord to share my heart about the subject above. I am going to attempt to share a few key-points here.
Favor's Deceit:
Beware of the deceit of favor's flattering tongue that may drip with the sweet words as honey and yet sour as soon as you yield to their
enticement.
Dorian Gray enticed young virgins, entrapping them by his flattering tongue and Adonis like physique in Oscar Wilde's novel... The enemy of your soul knows just exactly who to send across your pathway to entice you from your relationship with your Lord. Let your affirmation come from God! Do not entangle yourself in the allurement of false lips...whose secret agenda is for their own fleshly gain. And once their trap is successfully laid and their evil web is spun around their target, they come in and take what they desire, only to leave their prey laying in a heap; paralyzed and dying. God has everything you are looking for. Let the Lover of Your Soul satisfy you at all times!
Beauty's Vanity
Guess what? No matter how you powder, pluck, nip, tuck, plump, lipo, botox; no matter how splendidly you dress...while obsessing in the mirror for hours, it is all going south! Trust me! I have lived long enough to have realized the delusion of a "Fountain of Youth."
The men and women I have observed at the Nursing Home where my mother lives have taught me some life lessons. I know that at one time they were all little "Hotties"....but now....they are "Notties!"
The beauty that the Lord desires is that of a meek and quiet spirit. Kindness and gentleness that mirrors the heart of Jesus.
Fear's Praise
The children of the Virtuous Woman rise up and call her blessed. To rise up here means to, "stand up" and "blessed" means to shine. The Lord himself says that to have a reverential fear of the Lord, is to live a life of love and submission to His word and His will and to walk in obedience to the promptings of His Spirit.
I can envision how her children stand to defend and honor her. How they love her and rise up to help her in her old age. And when her body lays before them and her soul is with finally with God, they stand; honoring her memory; heralding her favorably for the beautiful woman and mother of God she had faithfully lived before them.
I see her husband also, as he sits back listening with a satisfied look on his face; as his beloved wife an is honored by their children. He stands proudly to his feet and boasts of her in the gates.
Whether you are in the city or country, at home, work, school... No matter where you are... No matter whether you have earthly children or spiritual ones....(those you have influenced someway for Christ)...and whether or not you are married....(we are betrothed to the son of God...we are His bride)...If you have lived the life I have spoken of above and not allowed Favor's Deceit to entrap, or Beauty's Vanity to obsess...but you have lived in reverence to your Lord....you have Fear's Praise...and You are called "Blessed".
So................Shine! Woman of God, Shine!!!
