God has a funny way of always providing the proper prior training to equip us to live a life of purpose & impact. At the tail end of 2022, I intentionally asked God to provide the specific scriptures He wanted me to use as guideposts for the new year. The first was Philippians 3:14: I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Then shortly after, Isaiah 50:7 and Galatians 2:20 were also added. I had no idea just how necessary these scriptures would be.

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

View God’s Promises from an Eternal Perspective 

As promised, today we will be picking up from where we left off when we covered the fearsome warrior-leader, Deborah. As Deborah shares with Barak the vision of Israel’s victory over Sisera and Jabin, she mentions that said victory will come from the hands of a woman…and that woman, Jael, is who we’ll be digging into today! 

In the popular Shakespearean tragedy, Romeo & Juliet, there is a famous balcony scene where the two teenagers profess their love for another. The scene goes as follows: 

A couple weeks back, I opened up about my struggles with heartbreak. Check out the post, if you missed it! But, at the end of that piece I said this:

I cannot contain my excitement! Today, we will be covering our namesake–the powerhouse, warrior, spirit-led, mighty woman of God–Deborah!

You probably read the title and thought…who? 

Today, we will be kicking off our series on overlooked and undervalued women of the Bible by learning about two midwives named Shiphrah and Puah. The text we will be focusing on today comes from Exodus 1:11-22.

In this series, we are going to be taking time to get to know some overlooked and undervalued women of the bible, yet key figures in their own right. All were diligent in carrying out the work of the Lord, but unfortunately they are barely mentioned in bible studies, teachings, and sermons. I think its time we learned their names! As we go on this journey, I invite you to grab some pen and paper so you can take notes on these mighty women of God! Their stories are a shining example of how God can use even the most ordinary of persons to do extraordinary things. 

Today we’re getting super vulnerable. We’re going to be talking about love.

Today, in the midst of Day 1 of my 5am prayers, I had this reflection: We become so accustomed to pulling from pain, but there comes a time when we can no longer pull from pain because God has healed the broken pieces–and now, we are left to learn how to pull instead from a new (and better) source…faith.