We see so much freedom in action in the woman described in Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31 describes a woman who cares for her family and is a blessing to everyone she meets. “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life” (Proverbs 31:10-12). She works hard for those she loves and constantly serves and puts others ahead of herself. She makes decisions without fear of what people will think. I think that is the hardest one for people pleasers or recovering people pleasers like me! She is not described as someone who demands attention or credit for what she does; she truly serves with no expectation of being paid back or rewarded for her efforts. She works with her hands and cannot be labeled as lazy or unmotivated. She takes care of those who are in her household and they bless her. Above everything else, she trusts in and fears the Lord. “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:28-31). We have been set free in Christ and the woman described above lives in that truth. She is not afraid of what other people think of her but instead finds her value in the Lord and works hard for her family.

This is the type of woman I aspire to be, one who acts on the freedom that I have in Christ. I want to be a woman who does not worry about what other people think of my decisions or plans but constantly serves the people around me with no expectations or hopes of receiving praise and earthly rewards. This world tries to tell us that we have to “stick to the status quo” or care about how other people think we should live and act, and that is a natural but stressful way to live our lives, but that is not what the Bible tells us. God gives us freedom to be different and live for Him instead of living for ourselves or others. As a Christian, which is literally translated as “little Christ”, the whole purpose of my life is to bring glory to Christ and that is not done by conforming to the world and trying to make everyone else happy in the way I live and act. Conforming to the world can make for a miserable life; there can be so much peer pressure and people often end up caving in and doing things they later regret having done. We are called to be different and to live out that calling, we have two choices: to live in freedom or to constantly be stressed and worried, even legalistic, about how different we have to be. It can be so easy to fall into being legalistic and even trying to push our own convictions on others, but that takes it to the opposite extreme of sticking to the status quo out of fear of sticking out. I don’t know about you, but I would much prefer the former option of living in freedom.

Another chapter in the Bible that I would like to highlight in regards to freedom is Romans 8, particularly verse 15, which says, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” I recommend reading the whole chapter for context, but today we are focusing on verse 15. This verse shows that we do not only gain freedom in Christ, but also adoption as children of God. As children, we are fellow heirs with Jesus and gain all of the benefits that come with that, including an eternal inheritance. In biblical times, only the firstborn son was the heir, so being fellow heirs with Jesus is a big deal. (He is called the firstborn over all creation even though He is part of the Trinity and was not created.) Because of this, we are no longer slaves to sin and fear, but we have freedom to overcome sin through Christ in us. He gives us freedom to live our lives for His glory instead of being stuck in the sin that we were trapped in before we believed in Him. This is the same freedom we see the woman in Proverbs 31 living out. Her freedom does not come from the world or any physical aspect of life, but from Christ who has called us to be in the world but not of the world.

Abbi