Do you want to be a well woman?

And Jesus said to the man, “Do you want to be well?” John 5:4   Of course this man, who had been crippled all of the 38 years of his life wanted to be well.  Didn’t he?  But, instead of answering this question with a decisive yes, the man by the pool began by explaining and making excuses for why he had lain there for so many years and still remained crippled. 

Doesn’t that sound like so many of us?  “I want to be healthy, but there are too many temptations, how can I eat carrots when my co-worker brought cookies”; “I want to quit smoking, but I just don’t have the willpower”; I don’t want to get a divorce, but my husband is making my life too difficult.”. 

Not long ago, God asked me this very question.  And it’s no wonder He asked.   I had spent the first 32 years of my life playing the part of the victim.  “Poor, poor, poor me!”  If I could blame those that had victimized me through the years for my faults and problems then maybe I wouldn’t feel like such a failure.  As ugly as it sounds, playing the victim gave me an excuse to fail over and over and over again.  I didn’t want to try, because trying was too hard.  

The day that I finally broke down and admitted that I could not make it alone, I went to God.  When He asked me the question, “Woman, do you want to be well?”, I answered with a resounding, “YES!”.  I was ready to be free.  Free from the victim mentality that I had come to lean on like an enabling crutch and free from my fear of being everything that God created me to be.  

So, are you ready to be a well woman?  You can start by acting like a well woman instead of the woman at the well.  You know, the one who had been married to five men and was living with the sixth that she was not married to.  She went to the well to get water in the middle of the afternoon, the hottest time of the day, when all the other women went in the morning because she was too ashamed and disliked to show her face.  She may have been labeled because of things that had happened in her life, but she retained that label by continuing to believe that was all that she was meant to be. 

Let me tell you, girlfriend; you are so much more than the choices that you’ve made, you are more than the products of your past mistakes, you are a life giving, light bearing child of God.  He made you with a perfect purpose in mind.   Let go of the fear and let God make you well and whole, so that you can fulfill that perfect purpose and bear fruit for the kingdom.    

I am no longer a victim.  I am a victor.  But I could only find that victory in Jesus.  I wish I could say that I always knew that, but I have to be honest with you; I looked everywhere else first.  Only when I hit the bottom of the well and was dying of thirst did I call out His name.  He watched me suffer and I know He cried for me as I sat and cried alone.  He waited for me and the moment that I called His name, He was there. 

Lose the Label....

Society tends to attach labels to people based upon their jobs, their families, or their actions. For example, you might know Amy, the grocery store clerk; Gabriella, the stay-at-home-Mom; or Jezebel, the bar fly. Some of these labels connected to a person can be positive, such as caretaker, or leader, others are neutral and do not bring to mind a positive or negative image. Others, though, such as bar fly or floozy have such a negative connotation that it is difficult to see past the label to the person beyond it.
Maybe, like Rahab, the Harlot in Joshua chapter two, your label accurately describes what you do and is taken from scripture or your company’s job description. Or maybe the phrase that is linked to your name is the product of the local gossip mill that won’t let you forget your past and your mistakes. The good news is that you can refuse to be characterized by that scarlet letter and be redefined by the image that God has of you. You are not limited by your past, your reputation, or your present profession. Your past limits you, lovely lady, only if you use it barricade the path of faith. God doesn’t want you to settle. His vision for your life has nothing to do with how many men you have given yourself to, what kind of car that you drive, or how well you can hold your liquor.
You might be labeled in your community or your job, or even your family, but you can refuse to be defined by this label. If you are ready to be known by more than Amy, the grocery store clerk then it is time for you to become a catalyst for courageous change. God is calling all of His leading ladies to act on their faith. He is inviting you to put your belief in motion and risk the highest stakes possible for what you know in your heart to be true. The world needs us women to start shining our light in all of the dark places without fear of what we might find there and despite those who might bully and harass us into believing that God’s truth should be kept in the shadows.
God is urging you now, because it is time for women to get assertive. Are you willing to take the risk of faith in action to see your own dreams come true? Do your dreams extend beyond yourself and your own selfish gain to include those around you? Do you ask for what you want or do you remain silent, locked into passivity and mediocrity by your own unwillingness to voice your desires? By standing for God’s plan in your life, you can plant seeds of faith in the life of those around you. It only takes one person to begin the ripple effect of positive change. As a leading lady of God you can lose the label and leave behind a legacy.