The Five B's : Conclusion

The Five 'B's' of a Godly Woman: A Blogged Bible Study

Syllabus:
July 29 -- Intro
Aug. 5 -- B1: Brave
Aug. 12 -- B2: Beautiful
Aug. 19 -- B3: Bold
Aug. 26 -- B4: Bride
Sept. 2 -- B5: Becoming
Sept. 9 -- Conclusion

...here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. -- Ecc. 12:13

The word 'conclusion' triggered the memory of that verse, and I decided to start today's discussion with it, more or less tongue-in-cheek. But as I was typing it out, a recurring theme from the last five weeks resonated, and, ya know, there may be something to this. Let me emphasize one bit:

...the conclusion of the matter: Fear God...

Did anyone else notice how often the notion of being afraid vs. fearing God cropped up? Not only in the discussion of bravery, but in the rest of them.

Let me do a little recap:

Brave: being afraid and doing it anyway

Beautiful: Fully mature, not pursuing false beauty, which is based on being afraid of the opinions of others, but pursuing God, who has made all things beautiful - Ecc. 3:11, and not giving in to fear

Bold: Filled with the Holy Spirit and not conscious of fear, operating in the grace of ability and the ability of grace...bravery grown up

Bride: Throwing off fear of intimate knowledge; allowing God to cleanse, anoint and dress us in preparation for the wedding feast...and what follows.

Becoming: Overcoming the fear of being 'too much and not enough' and resting in the knowledge of being 'appropriate for God to work on, suitable for Him to use,and in the proper place at this time'.

Everyone of those attributes has an aspect of fear that must be overcome. And we need all of those attributes to overcome fear. If we understood...really understood...that the Enemy's only weapon against us is fear, we would fight our battles differently.

I didn't really plan to do this, but then these things rarely go according to plan anyway, so... consider the story of David and Goliath. Or rather, consider Goliath of Gath (1 Samuel 17). Over 9 feet tall, armored in heavy bronze, and a 15-pound tip on his spear, he intimidated the entire army of Israel. For 40 days, the sight of him and the words he shouted immobilized Saul and everyone with him. Fear kept them from fighting.

Do you see that? Fear kept them from fighting!

Then along came David, who knew from experience that God delivers intimidating enemies into the hand of His servant, and he was not afraid.

The only weapon Goliath had a chance to use against David was fear...and David did not give in to fear. Instead, he knocked down the giant with what God put in his hand, and then killed the giant with the giant's own sword.

The weapon the enemy threatened to use was the weapon that took the enemy's head!

But it had to be wielded by one who was not afraid...and fear of Goliath's battle abilities was only one of the fears that David had to overcome. He had to also overcome:

-fear of being misunderstood...his own brother accused him of being conceited and evilly ambitious.

-fear of responsibility. If he failed, the entire nation would serve the Philistines. There was more than just David's life riding on this battle.

-Fear of man; he first had to convince the king that he was fit for fighting such an enemy, even though he was only a young man. He did not let Saul's position cow him into considering himself unable to carry out what God put in his heart, but persisted in stating his case until he received Saul's blessing to go.

-Fear of reprisal: he selected five stones, not because he thought the first stone would fail, but because Goliath had four brothers! He was ready.

David refused to give in to any of those fears; by refusing to give in to fear, he took the enemy's only real weapon from his hand and allowed God to give him a victory.

If we overcome fear, the battle is won before it is fought.

But...consider this:

All five 'B's are characteristics of what a daughter of the Most High King is, not characteristics of what she will be someday in the future. God has already declared us to be brave enough to overcome the fears of the flesh, beautiful and desirable to Him, bold in our spirits, hiding nothing from Him, and exactly right for what He purposes for us. Now.

The only delay in that is the time it takes us to get that truth into our spirits; the truth of who we are, not who we will become. What we will be is unknown...only that we will be like Him (1 John 3:2). Don't confuse what we are now, thinking we are less than that, with what we will be, thinking that what He has declared us to be is the goal ahead. There is a greater thing that we do not know, cannot understand, ahead of us.

So we need to be fully...right now...all that He has made us.

Closing thoughts What are the fears that hinder believing I am brave, beautiful, bold...His Bride, most becoming? Write them down; be honest with the Bridegroom...open, vulnerable. He will not reject or ridicule...but provide what is needed to overcome them. Allow the Spirit to discern when those fears are operating...and choose to overcome them.

And, now that we've kind of established a bit of groundwork, anyone who is in the area is invited to come to the SHE Revolution, which begins Friday morning, and Seek His Embrace....