Ministering to a Woman’s Heart, Soul, Mind, and StrengthIsampula

DAY 1: Becoming a Whole Woman

Have you ever tried to define the phrase, “biblical womanhood”? It’s a term Christian women hear often, but when pressed, would most of us know how to define the term? And beyond just defining the term, would we know what it means to be a biblical woman? 

Along the same lines, do we understand who we are at our core? Sure, we may hear a lot of conversation around the various roles women play within biblical womanhood as well as the various functions they fulfill in realms of home, church, the workplace, society, and so on. And those conversations are important. Yet, a woman is more than her role or function even though definitions of biblical womanhood are often limited to such.

To better understand ourselves as women, however, we shouldn’t start with roles or functions, important as they may be. We should first zoom out to describe a woman’s nature: as one who is created, who is a sinner, who is redeemable, and who may be restored. Thus, a biblical woman is one who is created by God, whose fallen nature is redeemed by Christ, and who is being restored to love God with her whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

You might wonder, “Isn’t this simply the definition of a biblical follower of Jesus, male or female?” And that is a fair enough question. But in many circles, this broader description is typically left either unexplored or undefined altogether. We can, in all our efforts to follow God’s specific instructions in our womanhood, miss the greater picture of what the Bible says about who we are as female followers of Christ. In all our dedication to the details, we forget to let the Bible paint the broad brushstrokes of what is true about us on the whole. And so this definition helps us think toward that end.

Bearing that definition in mind, consider that we are made in the image of Creator God, but that image has been marred in us because of sin’s curse. We rejoice, however, in the life-giving hope predicted in Genesis 3 for all mankind – irrespective of gender – and how women may be made partakers of eternal life through the gospel of Jesus. 

What then is the trajectory of biblical womanhood? It is being restored to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Scripture gives us many examples of the ideal biblical woman – ones who are created in God’s image reflected in the fact that they are given equal status with other male disciples, ones who exhibit a fallenness that expresses itself in various detrimental ways in their lives, but who have been graciously loved and redeemed by Jesus, and who then seek to love him with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength by living wholly dedicated to God as life-givers. Because He saved every part of them, they love Him back with all they’ve got.

Reflect: 

• Contemplate the effects of the fall on womanhood. What ways has the fall impacted you specifically—in your heart? Your soul? Your mind? Your physical strength?