Sunday 11 July 2010

Daughters of the King

Some years ago I was asked to speak to a woman's group. Now, I didn't often "do" women's meetings, but God from time to time has put me on the spot. This particular group was made up of women from several different churches, of various ages, backgrounds, experience of life and of God himself. So I asked God for something that we all had in common that I could speak in to and He said "daughters". Wow! That was so obvious, how did I miss it? Whether we were single, married, previously married, child-less or parent, we were all someone's daughter. So I took that theme and developed it a bit, looking at what it meant to be a daughter of God.


Sometimes we can think of Old Testament culture as being male orientated, but it struck me as I was preparing how often God's promises, instructions and warnings were given to "sons and daughters" (inclusive, yet distinctly separate from each other). It was also refeshing to realise that the Hebrew word for daughter in the Old Testament (bath) is associated with value, not just position in a family. Jesus, too, gave equal value to women, completely counter to the culture of his day, and in so doing upset the religious people.


Apparently, as they grown up, girls, more so than boys, take a great deal of their sense of worth from the quality of the relationship they have had with their fathers, and if we ourselves have not have had a particularly good experience of parenting, we may find it difficult to understand the concept of being valued as a daughter, but God is willing and able to teach us, if we are willing to let Him.


At the end of my talk, we spent some time connecting with God, thinking in particular about Him as our heavenly Father and asking Him to speak to us individually about being His daughter, the apple of His eye, someone who is so special to Him.

Of course, as well as being Father God, He is also the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, so we can be be called "Daughters of the King".   Awesome.    It has sometimes been taught that as women we are of secondary importance in the Kingdom of God (i.e somewhere lower than men), but I believe that we are just as special to God, and we share the same priviledges and responsibilities, not because of who we are, but because of who our Father is!    


Now that is good news, don't you think, girls?

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