March 2019 - International Women's Day: Believe. Encourage. Equip.
March 8th celebrates the beauty and diversity of womanhood with International Women’s Day. This day is much more than a celebration though; it is usually marked by marches in major cities with men and women alike bringing awareness to injustice and inequality that still exists today.
Women unfortunately are not always celebrated, and can quite often be ridiculed and ostracized for their gender. At TWR Women of Hope, we see women as so much more than what society tells them… we pray to see women for all that God has created them to be.
For this special day, we want to highlight what womanhood looked like in the Bible during a time when women were hardly treated as equals with men. Deborah was a prophetess and a judge that God had chosen to speak through to the people of Israel.
She received a word from the Lord to send for a male commander, Barak, to take charge against their enemies. However, he would not go unless Deborah went with him.
Barak may have been obedient, but he did not fully trust in God’s word. Because of this, the Lord promised the battle’s victory into the hands of a woman.
As the enemy commander was forced to run, he snuck into an allied women’s tent to seek refuge from the Israelites. Though she was an ally, Jael had heard how this commander assaulted and oppressed the women of Israel for years. She refused to contribute to his reign, and ultimately handed him his demise.
This story shows that Deborah was more than a prophetess and judge – she was also a mother. The Bible doesn’t mention natural-born children, but rather she birthed a fearless spirit in the entire nation of Israel to trust in the word of God… not to shrink back from fear.
Deborah not only encouraged the men to trust in the power of God, but her confidence gave way to a woman in enemy territory to take a stand against injustice and fight for the rights of the oppressed. If Deborah were to have turned back at the uncertainty of Israel’s circumstances, or at the insecurity of another, she would have never raised up an entire generation to take hold of God’s promises.
In 1997, a group of women came together to pray against widespread oppression in the form of abuse, poverty, disease, and limited rights to education. As more intercessors gathered, God gave these women His heart and shared vision for educating and equipping oppressed women around the world and across generations.
To this day, TWR Women of Hope makes up a network of faithful stewards who pray, teach skills, and give their resources to meet the needs of hurting women everywhere.
The beautiful thing about International Women’s Day is that no matter how small one woman may feel, there are millions of women standing in solidarity with her. Men too. When we come together and lift up one another’s burdens, real change is enacted. Women begin to feel loved because another person poured into them.
Like Deborah, let’s
Believe in the promises of God
Encourage men and women to take hold of His truth
& equip others to be successful.
Join us here at TWR Women of Hope as we cherish the truth of what God says about women, and pray that they would find hope and healing in Jesus.