Why don’t women live in their glory?
Because they’ve been told a different story!
We’ve got to get the correct story.
Did you know that God wants us to live in glory? He has invited us to enjoy His eternal glory, but He wants us to live in glory here on this earth too. Jesus prayed to His Father in John 17:22 (NET): “The glory you gave to me I have given to them . . . so that the world will know that you sent me . . .”
This is amazing. We know that God is filled with glory, but we forget that He wants to also fill us with His glory. One of the Hebrew words for glory is “hadar” and it means “glory, magnificence, splendor, beauty from above, beyond honor, majesty, and dignity.” We know that God is all these adjectives but Proverbs 31:25 tells us that women are to live in glory as well: “Strength and honor (hadar) are her clothing.” We are to be inwardly and outwardly clothed in glory.
Another Hebrew word for glory is “kabod” and it has a similar meaning: “to be weighty and heavy with glory, honor, esteem, and majesty.” This word is used to describe God but also the woman.
Proverbs 11:16 says: “A gracious woman retains honor (kabod).” We already have glory because we are created in the image and likeness of God. We have been blessed with a female glory. We must retain it. We must hold on to it. It’s easy to let it go in the midst of this humanistic and anti-God culture that surrounds us.
Womanhood and motherhood are belittled in our society today, but this is the opposite of God’s plan. He has a glory life waiting for us. It’s time to embrace it.
Lamentations 1:6 says: “From the daughter of Zion all her beauty (hadar) is departed.” In many cases, glory had departed from God’s female creation. The glory has departed from motherhood and the home today. From kindergarten to college, young girls are indoctrinated to believe that motherhood is inferior, and they must set their vision on a career outside of the home.
But what does the Bible have to say?
1. MOTHERHOOD IS GLORY
It is the glory of the nation. In Hosea 9:11-17 we read about Ephraim who had turned away from the Lord. God was sending judgment upon them for their sin and His judgment was to take away their glory. What was the glory that He would take away? Verse 11 says: “Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!”
God looked upon motherhood as the glory of the nation. Even Ephraim (which means double fruitfulness) considered conception, pregnancy, and birth to be their glory. The diminishing of children is a curse; the increasing of children in the land is glory.
Isaiah 26:15 (ESV) says: “You have increased the nation O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified, you have enlarged all the borders of the land.” It is God’s glory to give the blessing and increase of children. This is the opposite to liberal ideology which is man’s wisdom. But who do we listen to? Man’s wisdom or God’s infallible wisdom? Read Isaiah 55:7, 8 and 45:18.
Motherhood is the glory of womanhood. This statement is true for not only women to whom God has given children but for every woman. God has innately put within every female a nurturing anointing to nourish and cherish life. If a woman rejects children, she will purchase an animal to pet instead.
“But it doesn’t feel like glory in my home,” I hear you say. Often, we don’t live in the glory because we don’t have the right mind set. Although we love our children, we have not truly embraced motherhood. We think we should be doing something more important. That mindset keeps you confused.
To live in the glory, you must know God’s plan for you, know that you are in the perfect will of God, and know without any doubt that you are in the greatest and most influential career in the nation. Of course, you’ll have difficult and challenging days, but you face these things in every job, every career, and anything you do in life. The only difference is that motherhood is the most powerful career given to women. The devil does not want you to know this and keeps you in the dark. He wants to keep you from your glory.
More about “glory” in next post.
Blessings,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by John Elsley (1861 – 1952).