Titus 2

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Ephesians 1:18:

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”

Or, in contemporary language,

“Open the eyes of my heart Lord, open the eyes of my heart.
I want to see You.” (Paul Baloche)

Oh, to see all that He is and all that He has for me! That is truly vision.

Another favorite passage — another prayer:

“Show me Your ways, oh Lord; lead me in Your path and teach me…” (Psalm 25:5)

There are plenty of reasons these are favorites, and so many things to be gleaned, but perhaps the most basic observation we can make is this: We don’t presently see everything there is to see, and we don’t know all there is to know about God and His plans for us.

And our hearts should be desperately crying out, “Lord, there’s more! Show me, lead me — I want to live according to Your calling, according to Your ways!”

Left to ourselves, we would walk through life seeing dimly, stumbling down wrong paths — and no doubt they would be paths guided by humanistic and feminist thinking, thanks to the current trends of our culture. And I don’t just mean the unsaved. No, we Christian women are only too capable of taking the worldviews handed to us by the world, and rather than seeking for Truth, simply dress our feminism in Christianity. This is not the freedom or abundant life that God intends for us. Neither is it a true representation of God’s good plan to an enslaved and broken world.

This business of being enlightened and of walking in holiness is not a one-time deal. It’s a constant process of allowing the mirror of the Word to show us the reality of our human hearts, and of yielding to His hand as He conforms us into His holy image.

It’s not always easy; we’re emotionally attached to the ideas we hold to. We don’t always see how deeply ingrained our habits of thought and affection are. Sometimes we’re surprised by correction where we thought ourselves error-free — and oh, what a hit to our pride that can be.

Hard or not, though, the prize is seeing and knowing; it is living abundantly, freely experiencing the joy and peace of walking in His ways. It is discovering God as Creator, and we as the fearfully and wonderfully crafted workmanship of His hand. We yield to Him and find — really find — that He is good.

And so, here at Mom and Us, we’re going to try and do just that: Refusing to walk in deception or bondage, we will hold up the Word of God to our lives, and allow His Spirit to have His way.

(Meet us back here every Monday, as for the next 12 months we study what the Word has to say about womanhood.)