Category: Women

The Light of Her Example

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Queen Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022.

Living a life close to God is seen as archaic, yet the life lived out by the Queen should give us pause. The love and compassion, strength and integrity, goodness and kindness, peace and joy the world witnessed came from her God, whom she loved and served.

Our sympathies are with the Royal family as they grieve the loss of a much-loved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and matriarch of the whole family. The words of the Prince of Wales found an echo in my heart, as I’m sure they did for many.

“And while I will grieve her loss, I also feel incredibly grateful.”

(princeandprincessofwales, Instagram)

Incredibly grateful.

The world has been truly blessed to have had seventy years of her consistent, shining example.

But what was it that drew the hearts of so many to not only honour her as Queen, but to love her? Even those who may not support the idea of a monarchy or may not approve of what she represents have spoken with respect and admiration about her person and character.

Beauty and regal splendour surrounded her. She had dignity and poise, but it was neither a cold dignity, nor a detached poise. She combined elegance with humility, service with compassion, and wisdom with warmth. Duty was entered into with joy, and the strength and integrity she modelled was blended with her ready wit and good humour.

She upheld for us all a standard of something seemingly forgotten. Virtues from a previous age.

Her love for all people was evident.

This was not merely her own love, but as she spoke about in her Christmas broadcast 2011, “. . . the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Her keystone.


“For me, the life of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, . . . is an inspiration and an anchor in my life.”

(The Queen, 2014).

She had lived her life knowing the love of God and trusting in her Saviour Jesus Christ.

She often spoke of Jesus of Nazareth as an example to follow in His life of service and giving to others. Yet she knew He was not merely a great example.

“Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general (important though they are) – but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.”

(The Queen, 2011).

As she lived her life, devoted to her God, and speaking with Him daily in prayer, her life became increasingly a reflection of God’s love and God’s goodness.

She bestowed that goodness and love on the nation and perhaps we didn’t realise the hope it gave us.

Many have confessed to being surprised by the depth of their emotion on the announcement of the Queen’s passing.

We feel bereft. It is truly the end of an era and without doubt a monumental historic moment.

But beyond that there is a greater loss. She embodied something bigger.
Many have abandoned the idea of God, yet Queen Elizabeth credited her life to God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to her. Living a life close to God is seen as archaic, yet the life lived out by the Queen should give us pause. The love and compassion, strength and integrity, goodness and kindness, peace and joy the world witnessed came from her God, whom she loved and served.

And it flowed out to those around her.

As she said of Jesus in 1975, “His simple message of love has been turning the world upside down ever since. He showed that what people are and what they do, does matter and does make all the difference.”

“Good spreads outwards,” she noted (1976).

In 1939 as the country was entering into war, a young Elizabeth handed her father a poem which he included in his Christmas Day broadcast that year. 


I said to the Man at the gate of the year
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied, “Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

Minnie Louise Haskins


Today, as we look at the world around us, the future seems dark and foreboding.
Perhaps we should take to heart the wise advice of Queen Elizabeth to “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God”. 

The world has witnessed a lifetime of Queen Elizabeth living before them with strength, love and dignity and it is telling that on the occasion of her 90th birthday she again called on us to reflect on the words of this poem. (The Servant Queen and the King she serves, 2016).
She would assure us with the experience of a lifetime, that “that shall be better to you than light, and safer than a known way.”

The Good Part

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Does your “to do” list ever bother you? Do you leap out of bed in the morning excited to start making your way through it? Or does it feel more like a weight that you wake up to every day? Whether or not you have a written list, is your mind filled with anxiety as you contemplate all you have to do?

If the latter is true for you, then I think you will be able to identify with Martha. She lived with her brother and her sister Mary; they were friends of Jesus, and He was often in their home.

I have heard this story many times and when I was younger I often wondered which of the two sisters I was more like. I really wasn’t a Mary – definitely not spiritual enough for that – I was not the kind of girl who conscientiously read her Bible every day. Yet I also didn’t feel worthy to be a Martha.

Martha sounds like one of those terribly efficient people. She got things done. She kept a spotless house and baked and cooked and gardened – at least this is what I imagined.

More recently, though, I am coming to realise that I am more like Martha than I thought. No, I am still not terribly efficient; I am working on being more productive and on top of things. However, a little phrase stood out to me in the story and made me stop and think.

“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’ And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her’” (Luke 10:38-42).

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.”

Well, that feels familiar. Very familiar.

Trying to keep all the balls in the air. Remembering everyone’s schedule. Making sure dishes, clothes and people are cleaned on a regular basis. Not to mention homework, my own work, church meetings, friends and other family members to keep up with.

My “to do” list can silently scream at me all day. My mind is not at peace. It’s frenzied, overwhelmed, anxious.

Like Martha’s.

The Lord responds so lovingly to her.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Martha may have felt like replying, “I know Mary has chosen the good part! It would be wonderful to sit and listen to You, but there are so many things that need to be done.”

And we modern day “Marthas” will say, “I don’t have time to read my Bible today, I must rush on. There is so much to do.”

But the same answer comes to us.

“One thing is needed. Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her”.

The Lord Jesus spoke these words. But do we believe Him?

There are so many things we need to do in a day. How do we decide what is a priority? If we are Christians, then we should be getting our priorities from God’s Word.

Our first priority is our relationship with God and with Christ:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

If we are wives and mothers, our next priority is to our family and, depending on circumstances, possibly also to our extended family:

“They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children” (Titus 2:3-4 ESV).

Then, whatever our marital status, we have our local church of Christians that we are to meet with regularly, and individual Christians who may need to be encouraged in their faith. “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

We may also have other responsibilities, such as to employers or activities we’ve committed to in our local community.

Within this framework we can start to order our life, but every day we will be faced with choices. Things come up, and often our “to do” list is left by the wayside as we react to whatever is happening right now, however unimportant it might be. Or, on the other hand, we may be so focused on the “to do” list that we miss the child who needs a bit of extra attention or the friend who needs an encouraging word.

How do we have wisdom for each day? We think we have so much to do each day, but how much of that is following our own pre-conceived plans, rather than being sensitive to God’s leading.

Martha was troubled and worried over many things, but Jesus told her, “One thing is needed”. Do we add things to our “to do” list that are of our own making due to pride, a desire to look good before others, or wanting to maintain our own personal standards of perfection? What if, instead, we focused on seeking to learn what God wants us to be doing in our life?

The Lord Jesus showed us what it was to seek God’s face each day. He was often found alone, speaking to His Father. Mark chapter 1 verses 35-38 records an interesting story that was recently brought to my attention. The Lord Jesus had risen very early in the morning and gone out to a solitary place to pray. Simon and others came to find Him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for You”. But Jesus said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth”.

The Lord Jesus didn’t react to the crowds that wanted Him. He looked to His Father to find His purpose and followed that path. He wasn’t a people pleaser, nor was He ever frantic or hurried.

Are we focused on finding what God wants of us each day? Or are we worried and troubled by all the things that we think other people are expecting of us or even that we are expecting of ourselves?  

Will we have the courage to do the one thing that is needed?

Mary chose the better part. To sit at His feet and to learn of Him. This is the most important thing we can do: spend time with the Bible each day, reading, thinking about and talking to the Lord. This way we will gain clarity to know what God values in our life and where we should be putting our efforts each day. We may even find ourselves adjusting that “to do” list!

 

 

 

 

 

Courageous Compassion

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“And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him…

…And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.”

(Mark 3:2,5 ESV)
They were watching – waiting for an opportunity to accuse.

They had their standards, their rules. They felt justified.

God had given them the law of the Sabbath. “You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord” (Leviticus 23:3).

If this man, Jesus of Nazareth, healed on the Sabbath, He would be breaking the Sabbath rest! If He was from God, surely He would know better.

But why was the Sabbath given?

“Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work…For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth…and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

(Exodus 20:9-11)

The Sabbath was to be a blessing – a day of rest. The religious leaders of Jesus’ time had made it into a day of bondage by adding rule upon rule to the Word of God.

The result was an emphasis on keeping the rules – being in the right place, acting the right way, dressing in the right clothes, saying the right things – all of them things that could be seen and evaluated.

But their insistence on keeping the rules, as they saw them, resulted in grave consequences.

In the synagogue that day there was a man with a withered hand.

Perhaps they had got used to seeing him there, or others like him with various disabilities. They really didn’t care.

Their thoughts were occupied with whether this man, Jesus, would go against the rules and conventions of the times.

They were hoping to find fault with Him.

They gave little thought to the other man in the story – a man with a distressing problem. His hand was deformed and of no use. He was dependent on others, likely having no employment and dismal prospects. And they had no compassion for him, no great desire to see him helped.

The Lord looked around at them, saw the hardness and was grieved.

But it was that line that got my attention as I read it.

He looked around at them with anger.

Anger!

The anger reflects how deeply He was grieved by the attitude of their hearts. They had it all wrong. Their desire to keep the Sabbath holy to their standard was resulting in them hardening their hearts to this man’s plight.

As women, we have a vital role to play in reaching out to other women, whether in our families, our churches, or our communities.

There are women struggling with difficult marriages, the pressures of work, motherhood and more, who are desperate for someone to reach out to them, stand with them and support them in the trials they are going through.

But what is our response? Do we harden our hearts?

  • Perhaps it’s a delicate situation…or a complicated one.
  • ‘Don’t get involved’ is the phrase we often hear.
  • What would others think of us?
  • Perhaps there would be murmurings against us.
  • Some might be angry, seeing it as interfering.

But are we more concerned with our own reputation, than with ministering to a broken, hurting soul? Will I reach out and stand with a sister in need? Or will I stay in the shadows – avoiding any potential controversy that may come?

The Lord Jesus was not intimidated by the disapproval of others. He called to the man, “Step forward”. He brought him out into the light and stood with him in front of the critics.

“He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’…and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”

(Mark 3:5)

The Lord Jesus had a heart full of compassion. He had His focus on the man’s need, not on what others would think of Him – whether He would be judged.

He stood up and healed the man, restoring him to a fully functioning life.

When we see someone in need and come alongside them, we can bring life and hope to a difficult situation. We will not be able to fix the problems, but we can love these women God has placed in our path and be a true friend to them.

Most importantly, we can point them toward the One who is the Friend that sticks closer than a brother, the One who has promised to never leave them nor forsake them, the One who binds up the wounds and heals the broken-hearted, and the One who restores hope. He alone can breathe life into their wounded hearts and lift them out of their despair.

“Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

(Matthew 25:40)