We’re builders- Part 3

You can also read Part 1, or Part 2 of my series called “We’re Builders.”

• Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the LORD (ESV)
• Enlarge (that’s building) the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations (that’s your “home”) be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. (ESV)
• Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. (ESV)
• For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. (ESV)
• For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. (ESV)
• No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord. (NKJV)

Where do you fall in these differing versions of the woman of God? Are a single? Are you married? Are you divorced? Do you have a shameful past? Are you a young woman still living in your father’s house? Whatever your circumstances are or have been they cannot and do not negate the building work you are called and enable to do through the Lord.

The scripture is full of examples of women with less than ideal situations who were used by the Lord as they submitted their lives to Him to do a building work for His kingdom.

Here’s just a few:

• Rachel. Rachel was a barren woman. (See Genesis 29-30)
• Leah. Leah was an unloved wife. (See Genesis 29-30)
• Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute. (See Joshua 2)
• Ruth. Ruth was totally foreign to the ways of God and a widow. (See the Book of Ruth)
• The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). She had 5 previous husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband when God gave her a taste of the Living Water and she stopped thirsting for men to satisfy her. Immediately she was used to build God’s kingdom.
• Mary, the woman who mothered Jesus. Mary was single, a virgin, yet was called to be a homemaker for a man chosen for her and the Son of God in flesh.

If a woman has tasted the mercy and grace of God through Christ for herself, her circumstances will not matter. She will seek to build a home for the glory of God…whether the souls who make up her home are her own husband and kids, or strangers (as in Rahab’s case), or neighbor’s (as in the Samaritan woman’s case), or an in-law (as in Ruth’s case).

What souls are you making a home for? Jesus gave us a taste of our eternal home in His years of serving and loving here on earth…all the way to the cross. We women who have His life in us can also let the majesty of God be touchable by humbling ourselves as our Lord did, and washing some feet, or dishes. We can be the vessels through which souls around us are encouraged to trust in the living God by whipping up some breakfast, whether it be fish by the sea as Jesus did in John 21:12 or pancakes and eggs in your house or brought to the souls you seek to build up for the kingdom.

Lord, help me to be a kingdom builder, a home maker for Your glory wherever I am. Right now I have a husband and two children, I pour my life out into them for You my sweet Jesus! When I have opportunity to be stretched to include in my building other souls let me be a home maker for them too!