Freedom and the Godly Woman: 2 – Love and Defining Godly

(What is it to be a godly woman in an ungodly world? This question inspired me to invite some talented writers to contribute their responses. Shirley R. Evans, based in Manchester, is first and foremost passionate about seeing Kingdom impact in her local community. Inspired by the question, in the first part Shirley embarked on getting the gospel basis, now part 2 of the 6-part series sees her consider definitions and the role of love … For His Name’s Sake, Shalom, C. L. J. Dryden)

What does it mean to be godly? According to a dictionary, it’s an adjective that describes the person.  “A godly person is someone who is deeply religious and shows obedience to the rules of their religion.”  (https://www.collinsditionary.com). 

I read this and, truthfully, I am none the wiser as it really falls short in defining my experience as a woman of God.  And I guess growing up that was part of the problem.  For me it has little, if not nothing, to do with blindly following and strictly adhering to a set of rules. That would make life an ongoing struggle as I would and do repeatedly mess up and come up short.  Rather it is about a very real relationship with God the Father through the person of Jesus Christ.  It’s a relationship based on love and when you love you live to please the object of your love. 

I recently married someone who resides in the states and presently I reside in the UK.  I have a deep longing to be with my husband and I cherish the time we are together and take every opportunity to spend time via various platforms.  I want to understand who he is, his hopes, his likes etc.  This is the basis of my relationship with God, but it is so much more, He is never tired, He doesn’t change His mind, His continual presence in the person of the Holy Spirit comforts, teaches, empowers and so much more.  So, no, I am not enslaved by religious dogma but empowered and set free by limitless love.

Freedom 1 – Love

My heavenly Father loves me and each day I discover a little more about just how high, how deep and how wide His love for me is.  With my life so filled with love I have an overflow of love to extend to others.   I am not afraid to love even when there is no hope of that love being returned.   The scripture says,

“But God demonstrated His own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice of love by dying for a world who did not recognise or accept Him.  To personalise this, He gave up His life for me, If I had been the only sinner, He would have still laid down His life. 

It is difficult to understand love so selfless, so all encompassing, so conciliatory.  He laid down His life so that I could have everlasting life. Wow! So how could I not love Him and how could I not love my fellow man? Every human being on this planet whether or not they own it or recognise it God sent His son to die for them because He loved them so much.  How can I do anything else other than love?  Can you imagine the difference it would make to our world if we all just simply accepted every man, woman, boy or girl as our brother/ sister and just simply loved them?  Can we picture such a world – no war, no racism, no genocide etc. etc?

And there’s even more to the wonders of being free to be a godly woman … (to be continued)

(Photo by Naassom Azevedo on Unsplash)

Shirley R. Evans