We want all the same things they did, including a husband who truly loves us for who we are, a family that respects the efforts we make to craft better lives for them, and a self that nurtures our innermost needs in a way that does not forget who we are. Unfortunately, these things seem to evade us in this fast-paced world we live in. We grow up with these ideals, only to be faced with the realities of a husband who only loves us if, children who are disrespectful to us despite our efforts to maintain homes, jobs, school, etc., and finally a self that forgets who we really are when confronted by the harsh realities that we are not who the world would like us to be. We are faithful, even when life hits us dead in the face; we are strong, even when the world would like us to be weak; we are courageous, even when the world would like us to cower to its whims of change.
Even with these evidences of might, many women today are still living in the past ages of self-defeat, catering their lives to serving the temporal realms of sensuality, rather than serving the spiritual realms of the godly. We are servants in this world; either we will be servants of sin and live in defeat, or we will be servants of God and live victorious lives through His Son Jesus, who, by the way, treated women with utmost respect and love. When we seek love in the sensual realm without seeking it equally in the spiritual realm, ultimately we will not find what we are looking for. More than likely, we will find lust, rather than love.
For man is human with physical needs; just as women are human with physical needs. When women let themselves be taken in by the lustful desires of man, without the aid of the spiritual commitment of love and marriage, then we will ultimately find ourselves lost in a world with little hope. But not entirely without hope, because even if we have found ourselves in these very circumstances, then we can awaken our spiritual eyes in wedded bliss to the husband that Christ longs to be for us. A Man who truly loves us and wants what is best for us; A God who knows the most intimate details of our being and who loves us anyway. When we place all our hopes and dreams in a physical union, and not in the union of our hearts toward God, then I am afraid we will be severely disappointed.
Many young women today, just as in past centuries live the early part of their lives building up a storehouse of hopes and dreams about love and marriage, and when they finally have it, find that it is still not enough. There is something missing. Earthly love is just not fulfilling. Often we wind up in divorce courts, DHS offices, homeless shelters, or poverty stricken homes with two, three or four kids, no husband, no job, no money, and seemingly no way out. Our previous husbands oftentimes live a more liberated and financially stable lifestyle after the divorce, while we women live struggling from day to day, dependant on government benefits just to make ends meet. Where is the liberation that the world has promised us? Where is the liberation that time has promised us? Where is the liberation of the new millennium?
Today, I tell you as a woman, we women will not find our liberation in the love or the lust of a man, in the respect of a job title, in the independence of the divorce courts, or in any other worldly thing which promises us freedom. Our freedom is found in serving a risen Lord and Savior, who is the only prince who will ever come riding up on a white horse to save us. And He will carry with Him a sword of truth! It will either pierce us through or cut our ropes of bondage. If we spend our temporal lives seeking love in all the wrong places, while forgetting His unconditional love for us, which would redeem us from all sin, then that truth will pierce our hearts when we see Him in His glory. But if we seek His undying love for us with our whole hearts, renouncing the temporal lives we once lived, then He will cut the ropes of sin and bondage and truly liberate us. Yet, we must seek Him in faith and truth! We must know that His shed blood on the cross of Calvary was the result of a love for us that He felt was worth dying for. He knew that mankind and womankind would only be liberated from sin through love. While we were yet sinners, He died for us!
He knew that through the love that He showed for us, we would come to love Him. He loved us first, and through the eyes of faith, we love Him back. He loves us not with a temporal love, but with an ethereal love, which frees us from the judgment of sin for all eternity. The liberty we have in His love first teaches us to love Him, and then teaches us to love ourselves, and in turn to love mankind. The love we have for ourselves is not that gratification of physical needs, but the gratification of a loving spiritual relationship with God and His Son Jesus. And that love for mankind is not a sensual love that gratifies man's physical desires, but a spiritual love that gratifies His need for a spiritual relationship with God and His Son Jesus as well. And yet when we have this spiritual relation with God, He provides for our physical needs as well. So I challenge this new millennium of faithful women to live as servants to the Lord, not seeking temporal love, which may or may not last this lifetime, but to seek an ethereal love which will follow us through to eternity. If we seek God first, and ask Him to be our Spiritual Husband, then we will not be so quick to fall for the first physical man who comes along and tries to sweep us off our feet. For, only a godly man can come close to loving us as Christ does, indeed. And even then, he is human, and we will have disappointments. But when the disappointments come, we will not be devastated, for we will know there is a greater love in Heaven who will never fail us, nor leave us.
