I am all about helping women. My role models are women, my ministry is for women, and I’ve been teaching, speaking, and writing about our sisters in Scripture for over a decade. Why? Because God loves women, calls and equips women, and honors women in His Word. This is the essence of what the Holy Beautiful Ministry is. A place for women.
In the Bible, Elizabeth heralded the Messiah (Luke 1:42), Mary gave birth to the Messiah (Luke 2:7), and Anna spoke about the Messiah to all who were looking for the redemption of Israel (Luke 2:38).
When the time of His Passion drew near, Mary of Bethany anointed the feet of Jesus (John 12:3), Mary of Nazareth stood at the cross of Jesus (John 19:25), and Mary Magdalene spoke with the risen Jesus and told His disciples, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18).
This past weekend I moved my daughter to yet another off-campus house. This involved yet again, loading and unloading all of her things, including furniture into her new place.
One of my daughter’s closest friends helped me.
Finally, we got her all settled in and when we were in the car driving home we started to talk about friendship and women.
I told her friend that there are very few people in life that you can ask to help you with such a task as moving.
I told her this was your inner circle, your sisterhood.
In this life, very few people actually fit into that box.
She wanted me to explain more.
So, I proceeded to tell her that being fifty years old I could still only count on my hands my sister-friends. These were the people like today, that you could really count on when you needed them.
I asked her who she thought her sister-friends were?
She could name two and then hesitated on another.
I also explained to her that over the years I have learned to let God send me my sister-friends and when He did my relationships with those women were on a whole other level.
These women are part of my sisterhood.
These are the women that even on the darkest and coldest of days I can count on to be there for me and I thank God for putting them in my life.
Can you think of who your sister-friends are?
We often think of our friends as those people closest to us in our family. However, lots of times this is not the case. In the household of God, the friendships we have with one another are not of our own choosing. In fact, God himself has selected each person in the Body of Christ. God, Himself shows us who our sister-friends are.
What does a sisterhood sister do?
- Sisters serve one another in love.
- Sisters mourn and weep with one another.
- Sisters rejoice over another’s good.
- Sisters exhort one another on in the faith.
- Sisters disciple one another.
- Sisters grow together as they use their gifts for the building up of Christ’s church.
- True sisters help you be VICTORIOUS!
What it took me forever to realize is that one of the most important lessons God ever taught me was the lesson of sisterhood: the importance of deep female friendships that can exist in full-health across state lines, married/single lines, and the daily problems that can bring us down.
Thank God for sisters.
We all have sisterhood, or at least potential sisterhood, in our lives. Some of these women are blood-related, and some are by chance or choice. I praise God for my “real” sisters every day because the Lord for sure knows we will all experience ones that are NOT.
His Word continues, “The Lord…” Psalm 68:11
This is where everything begins: acknowledging that God alone is our source of strength. That’s what the heroines of the Bible did, and what we must do as well.
Leah rose above the pain of her loveless marriage and declared at the birth of her fourth son, “This time I will praise the Lord” (Genesis 29:35). Miriam, with her brothers Moses and Aaron, led the Israelites through the Red Sea, and then she led them in worship: “Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted” (Exodus 15:21). And Hagar, an Egyptian slave, presented God with a new name: “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me’” (Genesis 16:13).
These ancient sisters paved the way, so we can follow in their footsteps, praising God in every circumstance and lifting up our sisterhood.
Always remember, Christ Jesus did revolutionary things when he looked at women and counted them worthy.
The longer you are a Christian and a part of a church body, the stronger your ties to your spiritual sisters will become. (Matt. 12:48-50)
Because of the “blood link,” your goals and motivations will oftentimes be more closely tied to that of your spiritual sisters.
That spiritual bond may twist and bend and fray, but the tie is never broken. The goal: my sister and my friend.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Holy Beautiful Life
Featured Image by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
