Qualities of a Godly Woman: Part 1

I think in Christian circles we talk a lot about the necessity for male leadership. It’s not uncommon to hear girls on a college campus or in a youth group bemoan the lack of initiative from men—and honestly, I think sometimes men get a bad wrap. Don’t get me wrong, I think first and foremost we should be encouraging our men to step up, love the Gospel, and lead fervently, and it must start with them. But also, in our movement to raise up male leaders, we must also speak to women.

Godly men will be looking for godly wives, so how are we supposed to live?

I have talked before about the necessity for women to love theology—and I think that ties in here. We should saturate our minds with Scripture. Study it. Love it. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Live by it. As your life is centered around the Word of God, the characteristics of a godly woman will be begin to manifest themselves in your life. Male leadership does not mean that we default to their study of the Word as our sole source of spiritual nourishment. They will give an account for how they lead us, but if we love our Savior we should and will love His Word.

How will the children know if we don’t teach them? And how will we teach the children if we don’t know it, love it, and delight in it ourselves? We are all (men and women) called to know and love our Savior, but our roles as women are to teach women and children (Titus 2:3-5).

As I said earlier in the week, we must not be on a “quest” for a husband. Like the Bride waits unknowingly for her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ—so we too wait unknowingly for our future spouse. We must never assume a friendship is more than a friendship when it begins, lest we consciously or unconsciously take over a situation because of our false intuition. We won’t be able to wait unless we have a deep contentment in Jesus Christ. Waiting causes us to live out the theology that we believe. God’s sovereignty over every detail of our lives causes us to rest in the fact that He holds even the smallest details in His hands—even a man’s affections for us.

Being the pursued means exactly what it implies—waiting. Anything more than that turns into a rebellious, unbelieving spirit like Eve. Manipulation is our forte, isn’t it? And often times we do everything in our power to give the impression that we are patiently waiting, yet we coax the man along passive aggressively. It shows itself in our coordinating of situations so they perfectly leave us alone together so we can surprisingly have to “talk”. When we manipulate we are saying that God cannot be trusted in this situation—therefore we have to do something, anything, to make the situation work according to our liking. We usurp the very thing we desire, male leadership, when we attempt to pursue a man.

This is not easy, and it most certainly is not “normal” based on the world’s standards. Which is exactly why we must strive for this. The world preaches feminism and independence from any form of order (moral or social). But the Bible preaches a beautiful picture of redemption, in a Christ who purchases a Bride for Himself with His own blood. There is joy in waiting. There is joy in being pursued the way Christ pursued His Bride because it is the way God designed it. Operating outside of His prescribed parameters brings a joyless existence—and ultimately death.

In all of these things we must remember that our pursuit of God is not a means to finding a godly husband. If that is our motivation, then we need to do some serious thinking. Our pursuit of God must be because we want to get God—and if He so pleases to give us the gift of marriage then we will gladly take it, but in all of life our delight in Christ must be because of Christ, not because of what we think we might receive. May God bless you and increase your joy as you pursue Him with all of your heart and mind.