It is my heart’s desire to share that same passion to be a biblical woman with my fellow sisters in Christ. There is one verse in 1 Peter 3 that is particularly dear to my heart, verse 6: “Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.” Wow, what a power packed verse this is, especially for the so called “modern woman” (and how we can just see all our female flesh reacting now!). It is chalked full of conviction for me in the specific phrase “without being frightened by any fear.” Of course, as many of us have experienced, our spiritual lessons are often like a scarlet thread; Weaving through different sets of circumstances, people, and seasons of life until finally we have a “revelation moment” with the Lord. This is exactly what happened to me as my journey with Jesus has hit the hard realities of submission, insecurity and fear…and the dawning realization that for me (and something tells me I am not the only one) they are intricately tied together in my quest for biblical womanhood.
I believe there was a specific reason the Lord through the apostle Peter addressed fear in 1 Peter 3; because He knows that as women we are extremely susceptible to let our fears be the driving force of our control over the “head of our home” (husband, father, or male authority figure). Rather than be inspiring, encouraging, respecting, and honoring we let fear run our lives and relationships. Now, in case you are in the category of being unmarried (whether by being a “lady in waiting”, chosen by God to remain celibate, widowed, or an undesired divorce) we do not get excluded from this “portion” of biblical womanhood. I for one, have yet to meet a woman who didn’t try, at one time or another, try to control a man in her time on earth. Do not get me wrong, I am not placing all the blame at the feet of the woman for all of our “dysfunctions”. We know our gender wasn’t the only one cursed in the garden that day (Gen. 3), nor is any one person’s flesh better or worse. However, being a woman, I am speaking boldly to you-my beloved sister, that we need to wake up to the spiritual decay in our families, churches, and world and do our part…as biblical women.
Let’s go ahead and take a look at Sarah. Why would the Bible tell us to be her daughters? If you think like me, when you think of Sarah the first thing that comes to mind is that she laughed when God appeared to Abraham (Gen 18:1) and said she would still conceive a child. Not only is she past childbearing years, but this is nearly 15 years LATER from when God promised Abraham a child (Gen 15:4-6). In Sarah’s defense, I may have chuckled too! After all, we read in chapter 17 that even Abraham laughed when God once again reaffirmed His promise (vs. 17-20). I don’t think the Lord saw this as a lack of faith, or He wouldn’t have instructed them to name their son Isaac, which means “he laughs”. Her move that wasn’t so bright, was trying to lie about it to a messenger of the Lord (Gen 18:15). If we haven’t learned this lesson already daughters, there is no sense in not being honest with the Lord about our emotions, fear, doubts, or insecurities. You may be able to fool others that “you have it all together”, but the Lover of your soul is not going to buy the act!
Secondly, we see the way the Sarah herself was frightened by fear. One that not only changed the course of her own life, but changed the course of history! Now, God is still working out His sovereign plan, and is bigger than our failures and shortcomings. However, we see HUGE generational consequences from Sarah’s fear. She gives her maid to her husband so that she can obtain children through Hagar (Gen 16:2), which of course results in Ishmael whose descendants are haters of God’s people to this day. Rushing ahead of God’s spoken word only results not only in heartache for us, but for others as well. Sometimes, our poor choices even last generations.
You might be interested in a quick and simple 5-Day Bible Study my dad did on the topic - consider downloading it:
