Monday, April 22, 2013
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So, the Defense Department has approved women being in combat roles. Well, women being in combat might be new for the military, but they're not new.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Women in Combat."
I've been there when my wife brought a new life into the world. Believe me, she was a warrior. I've been close by when our daughter and daughters-in-law birthed our grandchildren. A battle they fought and won, big-time. I've joked that if men had to have the babies, the human race would probably be extinct in a generation.
I know women who refuse to cave in to the "everybody's doing it" pressure to give up one of their greatest treasures - their virginity. They insist - against the tide - that they will keep sex special for the man they will commit their life to. In many cases, that's a lonely stand - one that merits a moral Medal of Honor. Some will call them weird. I say they're rare - and, like collectibles, the less there are of them, the more valuable they become.
There are the women warriors who fight for their marriage when others would have given up. They believe, as God does, that marriage is for life - while their world bombards them with the notion that marriage is until it gets hard. I just checked my Bible. It still says, "They are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate" (Mark 10:8, 9). No matter what the latest opinion poll says, it's nice to know you've got God on your side.
Can raising a whole and healthy child in this culture be considered anything less than a battle? Today our kids are navigating a spiritual minefield, and it's littered with moral IED's that can blow up a life. But between many a child and those destructors stands a Mom who's fighting for them. Countering the lies of a deceived and deceiving culture with winsome truth about what's really right and what really matters. Lovingly listening as a son or daughter grapples with the inconsistency between the lies they hear at school and the truth they hear at home.
This woman winsomely sows - and models day and night - God's ways from the Bible. Because it's "a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" the Bible says (Psalm 119:111). The child who makes God's ways their way can say with the psalmist, "I run in the path of Your commands." Oh wait, you mean all bound by rules, right? Hardly. It goes on to say, "For You have set my heart free" (Psalm 119:32).
And though the battle that rages for a child's life can be scary, the medal-deserving Mom doesn't succumb to that paralysis of fear. She knows "God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). She refuses to just play defense, hoping she'll raise a "survivor." She plays offense, determined to raise a game-changer.
The ultimate woman warrior is not the one with the M-16 and the body armor. She knows the ultimate weapon for winning the battle for a life. She's a woman, on her knees, crying out to her all-powerful God for someone she's fighting for. Here's our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Chronicles 20:15, "the battle is not yours, but God's."
This woman knows that prayer unleashes God's power to (in the Bible's words) "demolish strongholds", to "destroy the Devil's work", to "remove a heart of stone" and "give you a new heart" (2 Corinthians 10:4; 1 John 3:8; Ezekiel 36:26). She releases the ones she loves to the One who loves them so much more.
Yes, women have been fighting life's most decisive battles for a long time. And those who have embraced Jesus as the great love of their life fight their battles with His death-reversing, resurrection power on their side.
So if you know one of these women, honor her. Thank her. Treasure her. And pray for her. She (in the words of Scripture) "fights the Lord's battles" (1 Samuel 25:28).