The Power of Women exhibited through ARCM

Women have great power. We not only have been blessed to give birth, but we have been given the strength and fortitude to raise many children when blessed to do so. We can be the glue that holds families together, especially when the going gets rough. We can have careers and families. We have wonderful brains and many talents that will personally bring us great joy, but that can also be a benefit to others and the world in general. With our Salvation, we can be great Active Relational Christian Mentors who can share the Gospel and help other women in need. Indeed, there are few things that women cannot do if we set our mind to it. But we weren’t meant to do everything. Instead, we were created to be a complement to our marriage partners. In God’s eyes we are no less than the male He created, but we are not more important either. The male and the female have each been given separate but powerful roles. Ultimately, though, our roles are to complement each other.

We are different from our male counterpart in many ways; some of these ways are obvious and others are more subtle. For example, both the male and female can talk and hold conversations that can lead to the forming of relationships. However, it is the female who uses more words to express herself, leading to a greater number of words spoken by females than men. It is also the female who can show a greater amount of compassion in certain situations. So, it should come as no surprise that women can make powerful Active Relational Christian Mentors. God has given us the ability to empathize, sympathize, and understand when someone else is hurting or needs help. We have been given both maternal love and the ability to love others if we so choose to do so.

Christ showed His infinite love for all of mankind by dying for all of us on the cross. Therefore, those who are new creatures in Christ (see II Corinthians 5:17), both men and women, can show their love for Christ and their love for others by living for Jesus Christ and by serving God and others. Finding the service that fits our individual strengths and abilities, however, means that men and women often serve in different ways. Both men and women, though, have the capability of loving others and of being servants in the Kingdom of God. Women often find that they can reach out to mentor another woman, because we have the ability to see the needs of other women as we empathize and see where they are struggling.

Unfortunately, many times the love women have for others is often relegated to serving our family and friends. With the assurance of our own personal Salvation, we sometimes forget that we are to also share the Good News with others outside of those closest to us, or that we were meant to be “doers of the Word” (See James 1: 23-25). Being “doers of the Word” is the recognition through our actions that we were created to live out and show our Christ light in such a way that others can see our Christian heart in our good deeds and in the graciousness of our service. In other words, other women, should be able to see the Truth of the Word of God in our everyday life as well as in our service toward others.

We are to show other people our faith and trust in God by being examples and role-models for those who are struggling. We do that by developing active mentoring relationships and by being there for those who have a need. Certainly, we were not meant to conceal God’s wonderful Good News by simply living for ourselves and our families. In fact the Good News is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. Remember the story from the Scriptures in John 4: 4-42 about the Samaritan woman at the well? 

(Paraphrasing) Jesus stopped at a well in Samaria to rest. (Most Jewish men would not have even traveled through Samaria, because of their feeling that the Samaritans were not pure Jews. But Jesus chose to travel through that country.). While Jesus was at the well, a woman came to get water. Then Jesus asked her for a drink of water. When she offered to get him the water, Jesus started telling her about Living Water. Jesus told her that whoever drinks of the Living Water will never be thirsty again. Immediately, the Samaritan woman wanted some of this water and asked Christ to give her some of the Living Water. But Jesus then asked her to go and call her husband, whereupon she said that she didn’t have a husband. At which point Jesus told her that indeed she did not presently have a husband, but that she had previously had five husbands and the man she was living with at the moment was not her husband.

You can imagine how astounded the woman was that this stranger knew all about her life. At first she thought Jesus must be a prophet. Then Jesus told her that He was the Messiah (the Christ) that everyone was looking for. This was the first time that Jesus had actually said that He is the Messiah, and He told a woman that He is the Messiah.

It was at this point that the woman did something that all of us should be doing. She shared the Good News with others in her town. The Scripture says:

“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ? They came out of the town and made their way toward Him. … Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’”

– (John 4: 28-30, 39)

Now, obviously, people today probably aren’t going to run into the main street of town and start shouting that they have accepted Christ as their Savior; mainly because today we think that we have become more civilized and proper, and we certainly don’t want to be ridiculed and made fun of by others or the media. The Samaritan woman, however, couldn't wait to share what Jesus had shared with her. She had a testimony to give to others in her town.

We, too, like the Samaritan woman, have the power of our testimony, if we are willing to share it with other women. We have the power of our voice and we can share the Good News with other women and our mentees. Moreover, we have God’s Holy Word as a resource and the Truth recorded therein on which to stand. Whatever the talents, skills, knowledge, information, or resources we have been given to share, we have also been given voices of power to use to share with other women. We also have been given our own specific talent in order to teach, coach, counsel, sponsor or to become another woman’s accountability partner.

With the power that God has given women, we cannot simply just live for ourselves and our family; essentially concealing the Good News by living for ourselves. Rather, God has given us the power of our voice, along with the power of compassion, the power of understanding, the power of kindness, the power of generosity, and the power of love among the many other things that He has bestowed upon His “Saved” children to benefit the Kingdom of God. But, it doesn’t just have to be the sharing of the Good News. We can also share the many things that we have learned from studying the Bible, from living for God as our King, and from being a new creature after we accepted Christ as our Savior. For the Bible says: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has gone, the new has come!” – (II Corinthians 5: 17). We now have the power of newness in Christ and Christ's love to share with other women. With that power we can help women in need whether they are teenagers, young women or adult older women. Whatever the age of the woman and whatever her need, women of power are to:

“Sing to the Lord, praise His name;

Proclaim His Salvation day after day.

Declare His glory among the nations,

His marvelous deeds among all peoples.”

– (Psalm 96: 2-3).

Then like David said, we too, can develop a deep desire to tell others of God’s greatness. For David said:

“I desire to do Your will, O my God;

Your law is within my heart.

“I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;

I do not seal my lips as you know, O Lord.

I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart;

I speak of Your faithfulness and Salvation.

I do not conceal Your love and Your Truth from the great assembly.”

– (Psalm 40: 8-10).

As Saved Christians, you are women of power. You can use your talents, resources, skills, knowledge, etc. to help other women be all that they can be for the Lord and then all they can be for themselves and their families. You can empower other women to live for Christ in all areas of their lives. All you have to do is to reach out in Active Relational Christian Mentoring to speak into and invest in the life of another woman. You can do it! But in order to invest in the life of another woman, you have to want to develop an active relationship with the woman. Can you serve other women outside of your immediate family?  I think that you can.  But you have to be willing to use the power that God has given you to serve. You have to be willing to reach out and develop relationships with Christ at the center of each one.

You have the power to do it!