Woman of Strength & Dignity

“She is clothed with strength and dignity: she can laugh at the days to come.” ~ Prov. 31: 25

Everyone struggles with fear at some point in their life. Fear can rob of us our joy and the ability to embrace life’s full potential. But there’s hope and through God’s word you can face your fears every day with confidence and courage to become the woman of strength and dignity that God wants you to be.

Five months ago, I was struggling with fear. Fear of not knowing what was going to happen next, fear of not being able to withstand the multiple trials coming my way, fear of failing and other fears too many to mention.
I remember being at this place before and the self destruction it caused as I allowed my fears to consume me. I did not want to go back to that place again. In my crying out to God and asking Him to give me peace and remove these fears, he heard my cry and reminded me of my purpose.

“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ~ Exodus 9:16 

My purpose is not to be one who is afraid, but to be an encourager, to pray for others, to be a pillar of strength and a woman of dignity. God reminded me that His presence is my source of strength.

 “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” ~ 2Samuel 22:33

I’m sure many of you have read the story of Queen Esther in the bible. If not, then I highly recommend it. The movie “A night with the King” will also give you a good perspective as to who Queen Esther was and how she represents a woman of Strength and Dignity.

Here is a brief summary of the book of Esther taken from bible.org.:
The Jews had been in exile for many years in the land of Babylon. When power changed to the hands of the Persians, they were still there. At the beginning of the story, the King of Persia is displeased with his queen, and removes her from her royal position. All the young maidens in the land were brought to the King over a period of time that he might choose a new queen from among them.
A young Jewish girl named Esther is among the young maidens. Her Guardian/Uncle Mordecai, brings her to the palace and he conceals her Jewish origin. After winning the favor of the King, Esther becomes Queen.

Meanwhile, Uncle Mordecai is against Haman, the King’s assistant, who decides in revenge to trick the King into declaring a sentence of death on all Jews in the kingdom, to be carried out at a future date to be decided by lot. Mordecai learns of the plot, and alerts Esther. She, at great personal risk, decides to accept the role of confronting the King about the plot and begging for mercy for her people. She is successful in this matter. Through a series of  events orchestrated by God and her wise handling of the circumstances, Haman is shown before the King to be the villain that he really is.

In the end, Haman is hung on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. And the Jews of the kingdom are saved from extinction.

An illustration of Queen Esther telling her husband, the king, that Haman is evil and an enemy of her people, the Jews. Queen Esther was an amazing woman of strength and dignity. God had a plan and a purpose for her life. She knew exactly what her purpose was and  she saved her people from death.

Is fear taking away your joy or causing you to doubt your purpose?
Ask God to show you what your purpose is, call out to him and spend time with him. He wants you to pour out your heart to him. He wants you to bring all your hurt and disappointments to him and lay them at his feet. When you’re afraid, angry or frustrated, express that to God and to tell him why.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”~ Jeremiah 29:11

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.”
― Michael J. Fox

The Nature Sing God’s Existence

The ultimate truth is that the Truth is always true, no matter people say it is true or not. God is the Truth. He is God and He exists, and it will not change as man say He is not. With the wicked, deceitful, and sinful thought they have will not ever change the existence of God. He is exist and it is proved by every single things He created. When man is busy debating on the existence of God, the stars and the wheel, His handmade praise Him and declare that He is God! He is exist! He is great!

“A Beautiful Mind: Life is Battle, Love and Endurance”

Deceitful, battle, perseverance, crucifixion, tug of war; these are the things I sensed as I watched the A Beautiful Mind. It cannot be denied that life is all about the battle. It is not always the physical battle like war, conflict, etc., but basically the spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:10-20). This film has so amazingly showed the glorious and greatness of God through the complexity of human’s mind he created. But as the perfectness of human’s mind has fallen into the sin, it has its possibility to be trapped into deceitful thoughts the devil has.

This is what happens within the world nowadays that: what is thought is what is real and supposed to be. People be the slave of their mind and forget about what is truly the truth. The life is the battle. Every single moment, the sinful and spirit thoughts are fight against each other; in the mind. There’re always choices every single second to realize and follow what is true and what is deceitful imagination. The temptation is always in mind, every single moment.

Apart from the SchizophreniaJohn Nash had, what he experienced was reflecting the spiritual battle the Christians have. The deceit thought and imagination trap him into fantasy of what is unreal. It was all happen without he realized it. He did not know that he was facing the battle in mind every single moment. He saw everything as real; everything is true; everything is right. He used to see everything he saw in that way. The symptom had made everything looked real. What is unreal told John to do what is not supposed to be doing: worked with some secret documents. Without his realization, the impact of slaved himself into that unreal and deceitful thought has been a bad influence to the people around him; remember, he ever unmindfully harmed his wife and son.

In his mind there are great complex and deceitful battle between what is real (the truth/ Spirit) and what unreal and deceitful fantasy (the flesh). But this is when Love takes it place. Realizing that her husband cannot stand alone against his battle, John’s wife patiently loves him. In love with John, Alicia accompanied him to wake up and realize what the truth really is. She had been a faithful accountable partner for John Nash. She knows the truth and helped John to know that truth. They went along together to fight against people rejection, the underestimations from people and the mind itself. It is hard and really hard. But that is what the love does; patiently helping.

This is the picture that came to mind as we think what the Christian should do. The constantly battle that happen requires accountability to hold one another’s hand and fight against together. Take a baby step in tug-of-war to win the battle. But it has not stopped there. Fight together doesn’t going to make the battle disappear. The battle is still there. John Nash still saw the unreal imagination he has. But the most important thing he did is endure pretended that those unreal things were not there; that they are nothing and he did not want to car even listen to them.

He took a step ahead, instead of only knowing what the truly truth really is, he fight against his mind and said “there is none of them. I do not need to respond even listen to them”. Life is always about the battle. But the thing is that in love, patient and endurance be accountable for one another to fight against it.