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Proverbs 31 Woman

By Tracy King

© 2010 First Century Believers

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Proverbs 31:10-31

10 A wife of noble character who can find?

       She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her

       and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm,

       all the days of her life.

13 She selects wool and flax

       and works with eager hands.

14 She is like the merchant ships,

       bringing her food from afar.

15 She gets up while it is still dark;

       she provides food for her family

       and portions for her servant girls.

16 She considers a field and buys it;

       out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She sets about her work vigorously;

       her arms are strong for her tasks.

18 She sees that her trading is profitable,

       and her lamp does not go out at night.

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19 In her hand she holds the distaff

       and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

20 She opens her arms to the poor

       and extends her hands to the needy.

21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;

       for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes coverings for her bed;

       she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,

       where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,

       and supplies the merchants with sashes.

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;

       she can laugh at the days to come.

26 She speaks with wisdom,

       and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

27 She watches over the affairs of her household

       and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise and call her blessed;

       her husband also, and he praises her:

29 "Many women do noble things,

       but you surpass them all."

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30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

       but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

31 Give her the reward she has earned,

       and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Is It Achievable?

What does it mean to be a Proverbs 31 woman and is it even achievable? I suppose you

are asking, why do I have to try and reach that bar that is

set so high? The problem sometimes is when we see a

challenge ahead of us, we think to ourselves, ‘there is no

way I can do that, it’s too hard’, and we usually end up

throwing it to the curbside and not even trying. How many

times did I do that, I can’t even count. I gave up on

anything that seemed too difficult for me…without even

trying. Always could I find an excuse as to why I didn’t get

that job or promotion or why I failed in relationships.

What quitting did for me was lower my self-esteem, convince me that I couldn’t do

anything and so I didn’t set my standard to high, and because I didn’t set it high,

everything in my life became mediocre, but it was easy.

Have you ever heard that ‘you can open doors with just a smile?’- I think women are

taught by society from an early age to try and get the things you want by a smile, flirting,

or how you look, what you wear. I’m sure in a lot of cases that works, I know it worked

for me for awhile, but how is that teaching us to do things for ourselves, and to take

charge of our lives? Don’t misunderstand me, I am not a feminist by any means, but

taking charge of ones life, is just being responsible, and about personal growth. I’m not

someone you’ll see standing by a barrel of fire burning my bra, or walking around with

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pro-choice signs advocating abortion because ‘it’s my body and I can do with it what I

please’-

What Is She All About?

The Proverbs 31 woman embodies strength and dignity as the scripture states. She is a

loving Mother and wife. She makes sure her home is in order, her family adores her, she

is respected by them. She gives to the poor, she’s a

charitable woman. She has a business and is

successful, she’s a wise woman. She doesn’t sit

around much and seems to always be on the go. It’s

funny because it sounds like the modern day woman

to me. I guess the question is how are we doing at it?

Are we exhausted at the end of the day? I wonder

sometimes how we can juggle all this. Get up in the

morning, take care of the kids, get them breakfast,

take them to school or daycare, get to work, work all day, pick up the kids, make dinner,

get them to practices or help with homework or just spend time playing with them. Get

them ready for bed, have maybe an hour or two to get caught up on dishes, or laundry and

maybe, just maybe get a little bit of television time in before bed, but once in bed we are

wives to our husbands and when you finally get to sleep it seems just a few hours has

gone by before you have to get up and do it all over again. Whew, that tired me out just

talking about it.

Reality Check

Now what we need to realize is the scripture didn’t say she did it all in one day, every

day. It never said that when she made her linen garments that she did it every day, hey, it

could have been her Monday chore, and Tuesday she may be in town volunteering or

giving to the needy. It’s clear that she gets up while it’s still dark and gets her family fed,

I’m sure that was something she did daily. My point is, we can’t read something like this

scripture without knowing the context and trying to apply it to our lives. What we should

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be doing daily is being the best Mother, Wife, Daughter, Neighbor, Friend and

employee/employer we can be. In doing that, trying our best, attempt those obstacles that

seem to difficult and feel good about just trying, you never know you may surprise

yourself. The Almighty has a plan for each and every one of us.

Psalm 158:8 The Lord will work out his plans for my life—

for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.

Don’t abandon me, for you made me.

My Testimony

Daily we need to rely on our Father for strength, for endurance for peace and for joy in

our lives. I realized after years of doing it my way, I went nowhere. I was a depressed,

lonely woman who just about failed at everything I attempted.

When I was in my late 30’s I came to the knowledge of salvation

through the grace of Yeshua. I thought I knew Him all of my life

but its one thing to say, ‘oh I’m a believer’ and continue in sin and

relying on self. It’s another to give your life completely over to

Him, not holding on to any part of it and trusting Him to take care

of you, being born again. I believe that once you truly can do that,

and seek him first, only take a step when he does, you’ll see things

radically change for you. My life took a 360 degree turn in what

seemed overnight.

The Almighty brought me the man of my dreams. I married and

within a year got pregnant with our son (a miracle in itself) I

believe the Father opened my womb at the age of 40 to have our child because it was the

desire of my heart to be a mother. We are blissfully happy and share in our faith and our

walk with the Father together. Since meeting my husband, I have grown in the spirit

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immensely. Never would I have believed that I could have such a wonderful relationship

with the Father as I have grown into in these past 5 years.

I say that the 360 degree turn happened almost overnight, that is true. Once I gave my life

over to the Father, relying on Him and turning away from sin, He then honored that. He

gave me my husband, knowing that he would be the man that would help me grow into a

deep relationship with the Father and help me to change my old patterns, to not look in

the past but to keep my eyes on Yeshua. Since I’ve been doing just that, my life has been

blessed tremendously. I have been healed from the pain of my past, and the peace I have

now is beyond what words can express. I find that my faith grows stronger every day.

Things that may have upset me in the past don’t anymore and I’ve learned to love and

have compassion for others. I’m not so self absorbed. It’s much too easy to forget about

the world around us and to think about our own wants, needs, desires. To lament over our

pain, past, present and future. I did that, I was very self-centered and did not think much

about others and definitely did not know anything about empathy. I had a lot of dying to

self to do. That is my testimony; now let’s talk about what the transformation is all about.

How to Make the Change

Transforming ones life is not an easy thing to do.

Depending on where you are at in your walk with the

Father will tell you how much transforming you need to

undergo. Most of us really should start from scratch…

dying to our old selves and being re-born into the creation

the Father intended for us from the beginning

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away;

behold, all things have become new.

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A good place to begin would be to ask yourself who your god is. Many of us have things

that we’ve set before the Father and until that is removed, you can’t grow in the intimate

relationship with our God that we as humans seek and what the Father wants with us.

Many women have placed clothes, shopping, jewelry, sex, their bodies, partying, or men

before the Father.

1 John 2:15-16 do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the

world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of

the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father

but is from the world.

Once you’ve identified the idol, rebuke, it, cast it aside, it’s a

commandment from the almighty. This isn’t an easy thing to do,

but it is the first step in a series of steps to become the Proverbs 31

woman. Placing the Father first in your life begins with prayer and

meditation. Pray the Father gives you strength to withstand

temptation of your idol, pray that He helps you to focus on Him

alone and what He has for you. Read scripture, the word of God is

the best defense against the enemy. The enemy will try to tempt

you and keep you from becoming a righteous daughter of the

King.

"The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they

might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the

good shepherd gives his life for the sheep." (John 10:10-11)

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Slowly but Surely

This process isn’t going to go quick. This is one of those things that are taken with baby

steps, a little at a time. Search yourself to find areas in your life that need to be changed.

Write it down. After you’ve written it all down, begin searching in scripture to see what

the word says about those things. Find a few verses and write those down as well. These

are what you will be meditating on. Here is an example:

1. I like to go out and drink with my friends

Bible verse:

Proverbs 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and

whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

I Corinthians 5:11

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any

man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an

idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such

an one no not to eat.

The Change Begins

Do this with all the things you need to purge from your life. Pray that the Father helps

you to turn away from these things. The scriptures give you strength, and that with prayer

daily is crucial for change. You will feel Him working in you and it won’t take long for

that to begin. It actually ‘begins’ with you choosing to make a change, and those things

that have had a hold on you will seem less attractive to you

during this process until one day you wake up and find that you,

by the grace of our God have overcome them.

You will feel a weight lifted off you once you have overcome

this. The goal is to do your best to keep from sinning. Sin is

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separation from the Father, but of course you can be forgiven of sin once you’ve

repented, turned from it and ask forgiveness. You might find yourself doing this a lot, as I

did. The world pulls you in one direction and the Spirit in another, a tug of war of sorts.

Sometimes you feel you are doing well, you are on the right path, you feel close to the

Father and BAM, the old monster rears its ugly head and before you know it, you have

given in. Don’t despair if this is you, it happens to all of us. It seems the closer we get to

the Father, the temptations of your old life seem to be everywhere. Never cease praying.

Be specific in your prayer. What is it you want, need, asking for? Be encouraged, read

stories in your bible of women that may have been sinful and were transformed.

Mary Magdalene is one woman that truly

had to die to her old ways, whatever her sin

was, must have been great to have 7 demons

cast out of her. She became one of the

closest disciples to Yeshua himself. Read of

other great women of the bible such as Ruth,

Rahab, Deborah, Esther, etc. These women

were strong faithful women that we can

learn from today. Their stories were told as a memorial to them because of their faith and

endurance. Our Father understands what we are going through, where we want to be in

our lives and He will help us get there. We have a very loving heavenly Father.

Hebrews 4:15 “we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our

weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without

sin.”

hen we are in sin, it’s very difficult to see what our heavenly Father has for us. We are in

this muck that we feel we won’t break free from, and even if we could break free from it,

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will we be forgiven and what is ahead of us? Scripture says we are to present ourselves as

a pure and radiant bride without blemish.

Ephesians 5:26-27 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water

through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain

or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Mis-Conception

Yeshua is not coming for a bride that loves sin and practices

lawlessness. It is imperative that we realize that without

repentance of our sin and change we will not enter heaven.

Most Christians today believe that repenting means just

confessing sin to the Father. It means that and much more, it

means to turn away from sin and having a true change of

heart. Many are deceived today into thinking that when they

accept Yeshua as savior that they are ‘once saved, always

saved’, and that is simply not true. Sometimes we are living a sinful life and still profess

to be Christians. We pray, we speak of our faith, yet our lives are far from showing it.

This is a lukewarm Christian mentioned in the bible. Neither cold nor hot.

Revelations 3:15-16 “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that

you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor

cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

We need to get off the fence, make a

choice and live by it. The world has

nothing to offer. It’s full of empty

pleasures that last but for a moment, yet

the peace and joy you find in Messiah

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will last for eternity. Following Him completely means to live in the world but not be part

of it. We are called out, set apart for Him and His purpose for us. Ephesians 5: 3-7 says,

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of

impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4Nor

should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but

rather thanksgiving. 5For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy

person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ

and of God. 6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things

God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7Therefore do not be partners

with them.

The Butterfly Emerges

As you grow in your relationship with the Father you find

that saying no to an invite to go clubbing for example or

pre-marital sex gets easier and before long when you even

think about what the world has to offer you, it makes you

cringe and you cling ever so tightly to the Father. He alone

has what you need and can fill every void in your life. This

is when you realize that you are walking with the Father.

You find that your desire, your hunger now is for the

spiritual things, you crave the word of God in your life, and

you simply and truly have the peace that passes

understanding.

Romans 8:6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the

Spirit is life and peace.

Being obedient in every area of your life is now second nature. One day you wake up and

all is well in the world. You want to do your best in everything you do, from the basics

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like laundry, to your job, and with your family and friends. You have now become the

Proverbs 31 woman.

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