weak

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women? Part 2

Posted on October 19, 2023November 21, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

By Elizabeth Prata

Yesterday I wrote about what the Bible calls weak women, though the world insists these are in fact strong ladies. They are not. Tune in or read here to see what is really a weak woman in God’s economy.

To summarize: weak women are the ones described in 2 Timothy 3:6, women made weak by their sin and vulnerable to false teachers or false doctrine, led away by their various lusts. When women fall for false teaching, whole households are upset. (Titus 1:11). Weak women are the ones who preach, because women preaching or pastoring in a church is a sin. Strong women kill their sin. Weak women indulge it. They then play the victim.

These women, you notice, focus on their wounds, their offenses, their hurts. They are dissatisfied with their life experiences, and use that as a platform for their ministry. They focus on their gender, and what they can’t have because of their gender, setting aside that God knows best. Jen Wilkin, Beth Moore, Aimee Byrd, Rachel Green Miller, women like that, who preach and teach men, are weakly cooing doves instead of victorious women busy mortifying their sin and exulting in the work Jesus gave them to do for His name.

Who is a strong woman?

Strong women are applauded in the Bible. These women are not strong because they bucked the denominational system and broke their church’s glass ceiling, elbowing the men aside in order to preach or teach. No, these women are strong because they dwell inside the strength of Jesus, content to work for His name in HIS strength and within the sphere He gave them.

Proverbs 31:17, She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong.

Proverbs 31:25: Strength and majesty are her clothing, And she smiles at the future.

Gill’s on Proverbs 31:25, “Strength, not of body, but of mind. … for though she is the weaker vessel, and weak in herself, yet is strong in him; and is able to bear and do all things, with a fortitude of mind to withstand every enemy, and persevere in well doing“

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Power? What power is this we are given? Barnes’ Notes: But of power – Power to encounter foes and dangers; power to bear up under trials; power to triumph in persecutions. That is, it is the nature of the gospel to inspire the mind with holy courage

So let’s take a look at some of these women who labor for her Lord without complaint. They don’t nurture wounds and complain. They get on with things, setting aside their sin and circumstances, to focus totally on Jesus and the work He has set before them.

Who is a strong, wise, faithful, courageous woman in the Bible?

The Proverbs 31 Woman

This woman is strong. She’s strong because she is strong in the Lord. She remains faithful to her sphere, which is the home. Everything she does is at the home or for the home. She is wise, industrious, hard working and above all, gentle and kind. She has earned the respect of her husband and her family (Proverbs 31:28-29), and also her community and beyond (Proverbs 31:31). She is strong because she fears the LORD. (Proverbs 31:30).

ANNA. She is mentioned in Luke 2:36-38.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She did not leave the temple grounds, serving night and day with fasts and prayers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna saw her widowhood as an opportunity. She chose to dedicate her unexpected and likely unwanted sudden singlehood to the LORD. Despite that era being of high apostasy in the people, and religious hypocrisy in the leaders, Anna retained a strong faith. She overcame her dire circumstances (as widowhood was in those days), trusting totally in the Lord. She proclaimed Him constantly, and taught the women around her faithfully.

Susan Heck is doing the same in these days. She is a modern Anna.

The Woman with a Blood Issue. She is mentioned in Luke 8:43-48, Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34.

In Palestine during Bible times, a woman who bleeds is considered unclean. She must separate from all people, for anything she touches is then considered unclean. She was in a precarious position- separated for 12 years, likely prime childbearing years…either she had a husband and children and could not be with them, (sad!) or she was seeing her potential for marriage and kids dwindle away (also sad!). She was also broke- she spent all her money on doctors and nothing helped. In fact, her bleeding got worse.

Yet she was faithful in waiting for her Messiah. She had heard of Jesus and followed him in the crowds that day. Not even wanting to confront him face to face, she thought, ‘If I just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed”. And she was.

Jesus told her that her faith had made her well. He tenderly called her “Daughter”, something no other woman was called in the New testament by Jesus.

She hadn’t given up despite her infirmity, and despite the fact that doctors had let her down and she might have even felt seemingly God had let her down. She didn’t complain, but had faith to pursue her Messiah, and humility to just touch His hem. She was strong.

In modern days, Helen Howarth Lemmel was born in 1863. She showed a talent for music and singing and her parents had means to nurture this talent. In her adulthood, Helen toured with Gospel musicians, then became a vocal music teacher at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. She married a wealthy European, but then Helen’s charmed life took a tragic turn. She became afflicted with blindness. And, her husband abandoned her as a result.

It is here that Helen’s strength in the Lord showed through.

Retiring from Moody she settled in Seattle. She then became a hymnologist, writing over 400 hymns. She was full of life and hope and love for the Lord, and this reflected in her music. If you ever sing, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth shall grow strangely dim, In the light of his glory and grace”, that was Helen’s lyric. Far from settling into maudlin moaning about abuse or not being acknowledged in a car (as Beth Moore wrote), Helen surmounted her circumstances in His strength, and wrote hymn after hymn extolling her savior Jesus. She died in 1961, just before her 98th birthday. Her earthly life might not have turned out the way she had wanted, but she pivoted and praised the Lord as long as she had voice.

Joni Eareckson Tada is infirm, in a wheelchair and battling bouts of recurring cancer, but uncomplaining and praising her Lord with all her strength and soul. So was DebbieLynne Kespert, who is in glory now, but persevered through her severe infirmities to praise the Lord constantly. She was strong in the Lord. They were not victims of their disease nor victims of their life circumstances. They are/were strong women in the Lord.

Marie Durand: Arrested in 1730 (unknown specifically why, but for a religious reason) and placed in the Tower of Constance, Marie Durand stayed jailed for 38 years. Every day the jailers came in to her cell and asked her to abjure (renounce her faith) and every day she said NO. She scratched RESISTER on the stone wall of her cell with her knitting needles. Marie ministered to other ladies in jail, helping them write letters home, and encouraging them in the faith. Marie was eventually released in 1776, and given a 200 livre pension- which she shared with a neighbor. She resisted claiming victimhood, resisted caving in to another Gospel, resisted complaining about her surroundings. She stayed strong in the Lord to the end.

There are so many women who are Godly-strong in the Lord. Mary mother of Jesus, Phoebe, Dorcas…Gladys Aylward, Corrie ten Boom, Elisabeth Elliot. And Erin Coates.

In the winter of 2021 when the alleged “pandemic” hit in Canada, churches were ordered to enforce masking procedures and place attendance limits. Pastor James Coates refused and was jailed for 35 days. The church was fenced by police and locked. Members of GraceLife church simply met in another, secret location.

Meanwhile James’ wife Erin, became The Persistent Widow. (Luke 18:1-8). She stood on a truck bed outside the jail, and with a megaphone, spoke of Jesus, urged people to open their churches, and advocated for the Gospel.

It was a tense time. Nobody knew how the tyrants would react- would they jail her too? Would they fine her for lots of money? How would the news outlets portray her? None of that mattered. Erin Coates stood on that truck bed with a megaphone calling for justice. Calling for people to know her Savior. She wanted the Gospel to go out in open churches. She was no victim, no wounded bird moaning about being oppressed or belittled. She was a lioness, strong in the Lord.

CONCLUSION

Take heart, sister. We are already strong in the Lord. We have His indwelling Spirit, His power, His Bible. We have the mechanism of prayer, honed discernment, and an eagerly awaited place in heaven at the Banquet. Our strength comes from Jesus, and our efforts in His strength for His name.

None of the women mentioned in this essay woke up one day thinking they would be mentioned in the annals of the Bible or Church History. They simply took one step at a time, obeying His commands and working within their sphere, doing the next thing.

A strong women in the Lord kills her sin, is diligent in her spiritual disciplines, and stays in her lane. Jesus gave us everything in totality, because He gave us Himself.

Part 1-

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women?

theology

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women?

Posted on October 18, 2023October 18, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We need godly examples of women who are strong in godly ways. These women who are strong in the right ways aren’t seen by many. This is either because the culture tries to hide them from us, or because they are truly godly, and thus are doing their work in humble, background ways and don’t seek promotion or limelight.

There are many weak women in Christianity too, and many of these ARE seen.

Weakness: A lack of strength, whether physical or spiritual. Scripture attributes weakness to human sin and foolishness and urges believers to find their true strength in God alone. ~Dictionary of Bible Themes

The weak women I am referring to we see raised up on influential platforms are paper tigers, these are not the actual strong women of God. They are in fact weak women. They use their influence to publicly nurse wounds and have navel-gazing psychology sessions they call Bible lessons. They have confounded the sisterhood with an errant notion of what “strong” means.

But how to tell the difference? Let’s have some biblical clarity on what these terms mean in God’s economy.

These are not strong Christian women. These women are what the **world** says is a strong woman.

“But I do want to say that I have always been strong-willed.” Beth Moore

Weak women give in to what they want, whether God wants it for them or not. Weak women give in to sin. In many of the cases, these weak women want to preach- which is sin.

The Bible declares one type of weak woman:

For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, (2 Timothy 3:6).

The context here is that Paul is writing to Timothy that in the last days difficult times will come. Then Paul lists an astonishing array of sins which will come to characterize the era, including false teachers who insinuate themselves into the church and capture weak women. The false teachers do this because it is a help to satan to have weak women doing his evil bidding. These women are easy to capture.

Different translations of the verse verse also use the words gullible, vulnerable, idle, or silly. What makes these women weak, idle, silly, vulnerable or gullible? SIN.

Titus 1:11 says the same, these false teachers aim directly for these women. In the Titus verse, they do so successfully and “disrupt whole households”.

Warning for Christian women: Sin makes us silly, weak, and vulnerable to false teaching. Repent often!

Barnes’ Notes explains about these weak women who are ‘laden with sins’ – “With so many sins that they seem to be “burdened” with them. The idea is, that they are under the influence of sinful desires and propensities, and hence, are better adapted to the purposes of deceivers“. … Led away with diverse lusts – “With various kinds of passions or desires – epithumias – such as pride, vanity, the love of novelty, or a susceptibility to flattery, so as to make them an easy prey to deceivers.”

Their sin has made their mind weak and their morals corrupt. These weak women have given in to pride, ambition, flattery. I liked Barnes’ note that these weak women are also ensnared by “novelty“. How many religious trends do we see women jumping onto? Blue bracelets, Prayer rugs, Contemplative prayer, Promise Keepers, Purpose Driven, Daniel fasting, Lectio Divina, direct revelation … anything new comes along and these weak women leap onto it as if it’s the Second Coming.

Before I move on to describing a Godly strong woman, I would like to mention that the weak women, especially those in the preaching pack, do two things that are offensive. The first is that rather than ensure their behavior or their worldview is not borne out of sin, these women co-opt God Himself into their sin and assign Him as the cause of it. I am highly offended by this.

Here is one example: Beth Moore said of the early days of her preaching to men, back when she had two young children at home by the way, “I didn’t have some big plan,” Moore said. “I just knew God was calling me to take one step of obedience, and that’s all I’ve been doing ever since.”

Strong women stay in their lane, content with their God-given roles. Weak women stray from their lane, then complain about the wreck in the road hindering their progress.

Weak women put the onus for their sin onto God. They are so weak they can’t or won’t take responsibility for their choices. They deflect, saying, “oh lil me was content stayin’ at home but God called me into this, who am I to disobey?’ I have seen this excuse from Jennie Allen, Beth Moore, Christine Caine (‘it’s a calling‘), and lots of other women in the pack. They don’t say what’s really going on: “I wanted to preach, so I did.” Weak women give in to their sinful desires. (Genesis 2:18; Genesis 3:16b). Weak women blame and deflect. (Genesis 3:13).

The second offensive thing to me that weak women do is harp on **”abuse”. Abuse would be anything to these weak women, from truly awful sexual abuse, domestic violence, to being ignored in a car (a complaint Beth Moore actually wrote about). Or of not being thanked for wearing flats so the men around her would feel taller. (Another one from Moore).

The **abuse focus is truly a grief to me. It’s awful how these weak women have twisted abuse to their own corrupt ends.

For example, have you noticed a lot of these women claiming to be ‘strong’ are in what’s known as the “Survivor Camp”? They constantly refer to men as abusers or oppressors, and constantly bring up their own abuse or others’. These women who preach & teach sinfully, insinuate that every man sitting in a pew is an abuser just waiting for his moment to become a violent oppressor against innocent women who unhappily meander into his proximity. Sometimes they accuse whole denominations! Beth Moore did.

And Aimee Byrd-

“She admits over and over in writing and interview that her impetus for writing has often been situations in which she feels offended as a woman, slighted, or personally neglected”… her teaching is ungodly: it does not arise from unreserved faith in God’s Word, but from dissatisfaction with her experiences.” By Shane D. Anderson

Rachel Green Miller worries about women who are “belittled…” Oy.

I hope and pray that if any of these Survivor type preaching platformed weak women reading this who are supposedly advocating for the “abused,” that tomorrow when I post what a TRULY strong Christian woman is, they would be embarrassed for their ridiculous and petty complaints.

They are weak females whose basis for ministry rests on a wounded dove cooing weakly in the dirt, or is saturated with nursing old wounds they love to pick over. These women do not base their ministry on the foundation of the transcendent Rock who endured all the abuse, pain, loneliness, neglect, rejection, hatred and reviling there ever was or will be.

These weak women laden with sins are just snowflakes, ready to melt at the tiniest offense

No one knows more than Jesus how it feels to experience all those things. Yet packs of women trade on their feelings as wounded snowflakes and exploit their hurts, for what? Attention, fame, power, and/or money.

Weak women are “led away”. It’s easy to give in to sin. It’s hard to subdue one’s sin, mortify it. It’s difficult to keep in the prescribed roles and bounds Jesus has for us. It takes a strong women to resist sin. A weak woman succumbs to them.

Tomorrow: What is a strong woman according to the Bible?

Further Resources:

Owen Strachan: Are Godly Men Weak or Strong?

**RE ‘abuse’: I am aware that true abuse exists. I am quite familiar myself with various kinds of abuse. Quite. I am sensitive to the hurts that various kinds of abuse cause. I know the impacts of true abuse are wide-ranging and long-lasting. I am not dismissing true abuse. I am offended by the USE of abuse as a cover for sin, as an excuse for behavior, or as a merchandising of a ministry.

The reason I don’t speak of the various kinds of abuse I personally have endured, is because it DOESN’T MATTER. It is of no consequence. It doesn’t figure in.

Why? First of all, Jesus took the wrath for anyone who abuses but later comes to faith. Abusers are usually not saved people, who can’t help their lusts. If they are saved people, we need to forgive, and remember that Jesus took ALL the abuse on the cross, including separation from the Father who turned His face away. How does my experience of abuse compare to that?

Secondly, these snowflake ladies turn any little bump in the road into abuse. They have abused the word abuse so that anything that offends them, they claim is abuse. It’s not.

Thirdly, others have suffered much more than me, and not because of another’s sin, which is to be expected in the world, but for the Name. Paul, for example, experienced abuse; physical and spiritual. Stephen was martyred. Silas went to jail with Paul. Mary mother of Jesus endured it. And many others in history. You will see some of them in tomorrow’s post.

So, ladies, let it go. Yes, you were hurt, so are MOST PEOPLE. You’re not special with your pet abuse you carry around. Lay it down at the cross. As Jimmy Buffett said, ‘Breathe in, breathe out, move on’.

encouragement

What about a Christian’s Weakness?

Posted on August 10, 2023August 10, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There’s weakness, and then there’s weakness. It depends on which kind you’re talking about.

Christian women are noted as the weaker vessel. (1 Peter 3:7).

As for Christian weakness in general, we’re all weak, we are supposed to be. Paul said that Jesus replied to him,

‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

There’s weak because we’re laden with sin that makes us weak. That is one reason we strive not to sin. We pick up our cross daily and slay sin. When we do sin, it’s important to address it by repenting to Jesus and making things right with the other person, if you had involved another person in your sin. Sin is one reason we become weak and ineffective.

There’s weak because we understand our depravity and seek the Spirit’s strength. There’s weak when we see how powerful Jesus is, and understand our own powerlessness in the face of His omnipotence. There’s physically weak, due to illness temporary or permanent.

In some cases, God gives us weakness. He gave to Paul a “thorn in the side” both to keep Paul humble, and to demonstrate that all we need is His grace (not our own strength). (2 Corinthians 12:7)

In America where I’m from, strength is valued. Strength, bravado, and self-sufficiency are nationally recognized attributes, idols, even. In addition, American Feminism has also contributed to a national consciousness that we woman are supposed to have it all together and be capable of all things at all times. “I can bring home the bacon AND fry it up in a pan” as the old TV advertisement alleged.

The attributes of weakness, meekness, and humility aren’t as valued as they are in other nations. But it’s OK to be weak. It’s good. Why?

It’s God who strengthens us. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13).

Wouldn’t you rather have His strength than your own strength, anyway? 🙂

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Further Reading

Here are a few resources on our weakness.

Desiring God: Don’t Waste Your Weakness

The End Time: Are you a weak woman, or are you a weak woman?

Grace To You blog post: God’s Sufficient Grace

Ligonier Devotional: Power in Weakness

bible, discernment, weaker vessel, women

Are you a weak woman, or are you a weak woman?

Posted on August 9, 2023August 9, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The Bible says some women are weak, and it is meant in a bad way. The Bible also says Christians are to be weak, but it’s meant in a good way. Let’s look at the two ways.

Weak in a bad way

For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions (2 Timothy 3:6)

The Greek word for weak here is gunaikarion, a contemptuous term meaning a silly, foolish, little woman.

Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown Commentary says,

laden with sins—(Isa 1:4); applying to the “silly women” whose consciences are burdened with sins, and so are a ready prey to the false teachers who promise ease of conscience if they will follow them. A bad conscience leads easily to shipwreck of faith (1Ti 1:19).
JFB Commentary

Weak in a good way

Weak woman is strong. She prays and relies on Jesus.

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Gill’s Explains it this way:

for when I am weak, then am I strong; when he was attended with all the above mentioned infirmities, when laden with reproaches, surrounded with necessities, followed with persecutions, and brought into the utmost straits and difficulties, and was most sensible of his weakness in himself to bear and go through all these things; then was he upheld by the divine arm, and strengthened by the power of Christ; so that he was not only able to sustain the conflict, but became more than a conqueror, and even to triumph in the midst of these adversities;

The difference is that silly weak women are loaded down with unrepented-of sin, which clouds their mind and they fall prey to untruth. Weak women who rely on the glorious Divine Arm to lift them are wise, strong, and in His power. They know the truth and see Him clearly. They possess virtue and radiate calm wisdom.

Repent often. Pray frequently. Consult the Word repeatedly. Then we will not be silly, foolish, or an embarrassment to the faith.

So. Are you a weak woman or are you a weak woman?

encouragement

What about a Christian’s Weakness?

Posted on April 24, 2017April 24, 2017 by elizabethprata

There’s weakness, and then there’s weakness. It depends on which kind you’re talking about.

Christian women are noted as the weaker vessel. (1 Peter 3:7). GotQuestions explains in this excerpt:

This is not a popular idea among many women or even many men. However, the Scripture tells us that the woman was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14), she is subject to her husband (1 Peter 3:1) and that she is a “weaker” vessel. That women are usually physically weaker is undeniable, but the implication of the fall is that by virtue of her being deceived by Satan, women may also sometimes be weaker in other ways. That definitely does not mean she is less valuable (Ephesians 1:6) or that she does not have equal access to grace (Galatians 3:28).

As for Christian weakness in general, we’re all weak, we are supposed to be. Paul said that Jesus replied to him,

There’s weak because we’re laden with sin that makes us weak. That is one reason we strive not to sin. We pick up our cross daily and slay it. When we do sin, it’s important to address it by repenting to Jesus and making things right with theother person, if you had involved another person in your sin. Sin is one reason we become weak and ineffective.

The attributes of weakness, meekness, and humility aren’t as valued as they are in other nations. But it’s OK to be weak. It’s good. Why?

It’s God who strengthens us. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13).

Wouldn’t you rather have His strength than your own strength, anyway? 🙂

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