This past weekend, we had our 8th Annual Grace In The Wilderness Teen Conference, Empowered Jesus Girl. We had nearly 200 teenage girls to pack out Potter’s Clay Fellowship in Easley, SC. The life-changing night was filled with praise and worship, lots of laughs, and memories that will last forever! Special thanks to our speaker, Alicia Ivey, for sharing God’s Word and challenging us to “fan the flames” of our salvation and find power in Jesus’ Name! Alicia reminded us that even in the hard times, we are still beautiful in the eyes of God. We are all created in His image. And we can find strength in His Word for each day.

Our conference theme this year was “I am strong. I am beautiful. I am enough.”

It is not just teenage girls that need to hear this message of encouragement. It is for adult women too. We are strong. We are beautiful. And we are enough. The World tells women that we are not any of these things, starting at a very young age. But God has so much more to say about that. He deeply loves me. He deeply loves you.

I am strong. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

God made woman very special, very strong, very versatile.  He gave her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world in His power, but gentle enough to give comfort.  He gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that may come when her children break her heart.  God made her strong to carry her husband through his faults to stand beside him unfalteringly.  He created her from his rib to protect her husband’s heart.  The Lord gave her a strength to let her keep going when everyone else gives up and a resolve to take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.  She can spend a long day caring for her elderly parents, cook dinner, clean house, do homework and be there for her husband and kids.  Then walk a sick baby 10 miles that night, get 45 minutes of sleep, wash the baby throw up out of her hair, slip on her 4 inch heels, and be sharp as a tack for an important meeting.  She’s special… He created us to be strong.

I am beautiful. Psalm 139:14 says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.”

Beauty is an area that the devil constantly uses to beat down women. Commercials streaming airbrushed faces and pencil-thin curvaceous bodies shout that the average woman just does not measure up. No matter what you think about yourself, you are beautiful. Psalm 45:11 says, “The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord.” God has a great love for us. He wants us to know and experience this great love. The primary reason we do not is we are unsatisfied with who we are and, as a result, we attempt to earn other people’s approval for how we look, what we do, or what we will become. Yet, the Lord wants you and me to know that He loves us and He has created us special. We are in His image, and that makes us incredibly beautiful.

I am enough. Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Today’s Busy Woman lives in a wilderness that’s all about being enough, or rather, not being enough. We ARE enough in the eyes of our Creator. “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

Despite this truth, we are overwhelmed by the whispers of the Satan, telling us we are not enough. There’s a saying that goes, “You can never be too rich, too thin or too tan.”  Wow! Good thing the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) or many of us just would never measure up at all.

We feel pressure to give more to our husbands, our children, our parents, our jobs.  Problem is we have nothing left to give.  Sometimes we feel so empty, so inadequate, so weary.  Why can’t we be all things to all people all the time?

Truth is that job is already filled by Jesus Christ, and, actually, He does not need our help at all.  But, Boy, we sure need His!  You see, we can not do enough or be good enough to deserve Heaven or Christ’s forgiveness for our sins, either.  We need a hero who can save us at every turn.  There is only One who can—Jesus, the Way, the Truth and The Life (John 14:6). He is our only hope in this chaos.  His unconditional, everlasting love for us is strong enough to help no matter what we need or what we have to do.  He longs for us to ask Him for help, to be everything to us, to be the Lord and helper of our every minute. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Thank God, His Grace is ENOUGH!

We are enough because of His incomprehensible love for us—love that was willing to die us. There is only one of you and God has plans for a hope and a future for you. (Jeremiah 29:11) He wants to make us all His Empowered Jesus Girls.

Dear Lord: Thank You for Your great love for us. Please help us to see ourselves through Your eyes. In this new year, help us to find strength, beauty and power through you to become the Empowered Jesus Girls that You plan for us to be. Amen

Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24

Thank you for reading and sharing my blogpost today. May God empower you in the new year to ignore the lies of Satan, and to do all the things He calls you to do.