When God created woman in His image, He created her with influence, because you cannot help who you cannot influence. Single ladies, you do not need a husband to have influence. According to the Scriptures, there is a supernatural way in which God created all women with an ability to influence humanity.
This can seem far fetched when we consider how women and children are often the victims of great atrocities around the globe. This is the enemy at work, keeping women in a state of subjugation because he knows the influence God has given women. If they are subjugated, their influence can be silenced.
To make this point, I remember being at a conference in which a woman asked the audience, “Do you know your worth? I know mine. One cow, 50 chickens, ….” She proceeded to state how women in her country are still considered property. Then she said, “May I be honest? My husband does not treat his property very well. And property cannot own property.”
My heart was cut. I do not think I will ever forget that moment in time. It showed me the extent to which the Scriptures are radical in giving women value and worth from the very opening chapters of Genesis: We too are in God’s image and commissioned to be involved in the mission of God.
With all that said, I want to shift to how our influence can be corrupted by our own choice. When we are afforded freedom in our world, how do we use it? This brings me to my quiet time in Jeremiah 44:
“Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.“
“Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods . . . And the women said, ‘When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”‘
This produces a sobering humility inside me. These women spear-headed the worship of “the queen of heaven” in Judah. They tried to point the finger at their husbands, claiming their approval. Nice try ladies. God was going to hold them all, men and women, accountable. The women influenced their husbands and an entire nation to turn from God! What an incredible thought.
As if it couldn’t get any crazier, it does. The people in Jeremiah 44 are Judeans who survived Jerusalem’s destruction and fled to Egypt (against the Lord’s command too). When Jeremiah confronts the people with their sin, they completely reject God’s message. They are committed to performing their vows to the queen of heaven (vs. 16-18; 24-25).
Therefore, these women not only used their influence to turn the hearts of the nation from the King of kings to “the queen of heaven,” but they also successfully created a stronghold over the people! This stronghold was so powerful that the people were completely corrupted in their thinking. Even logical thinking was gone! They were unwilling to admit they were wrong, unwilling to repent. Yikes.
How are we using our influence? Whether that’s in our marriages, at work, in our communities, in our homes, in our nation, or in our churches? Do we use our words to gossip, slander, or throw passive aggressive daggers? Do we willingly subjugate our bodies as we follow the lie that sexual prowess is power? Do we speak the message of the world to follow the heart? Does our worship culture inform our understanding of God more than His Word? Do we advocate for a more feminine God in our churches, one who has no boundaries and whose love is reckless?
Oh sisters! We need to get grounded. We need to stay steadfast in the Scriptures. We need to have tough love conversations with each other. Because, when we have freedom to influence (which the Bible has always given us in God’s Kingdom), we have ENORMOUS responsibility to use it for God’s glory and His Kingdom advancement. Let us never become like the women in Jeremiah 44. And I mean this for us individually and collectively!
Instead, let us be women like the women in Luke 8:1-3 who provided for Jesus and his disciples. Or like the women in the upper room in Acts 1. Or like Priscilla in the N.T. who labored in teaching others alongside her husband. Or like Lydia (a business woman) and the other women by the river gathered for prayer. Or like Phoebe, a deaconess, or Rufus’ mother who was like a mother to Paul. Or like the women who were clothed with modest clothing AND good works. Or like the true widows who had showed hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, and cared for the afflicted. Or like women who are crowns to their husbands. Honestly, the possibility of our redemptive influence is incredible!
So, let us examine ourselves and walk in the redemption of our influence by the power given to use through Jesus Christ. Because we are created as influential. There’s not a passive in-between. Choose redemptive influence.
By the River Together 