Often, “strong” women get a bad rap in the church—but what if God actually intends for you to be strong? In this video, I explore how it’s not just OK for you to be strong as a woman—it’s essential. If you’ve ever struggled with this concept, you’re not alone. Dive into this video and let me know your experience wrestling with these ideas in the comments! I love hearing from you!
[Music]
okay my friends i want to tell you why
strong is not wrong strong is not
wrong now this just came out of my
spirit when i was actually talking to a
friend she had just come from a rather
frustrating conversation where where i
think she kind of was
feeling that she was being told that she
was too much that she was
too strong
too confident
to
to something and i listened to her
and out of my spirit i just blurted out
you know what strong
is not wrong strong is not wrong so
let’s talk about this because i think
sometimes as women
we think strong is wrong
or
our culture tells us that
wrong is strong be angry be vengeful but
we’re not talking about this we’re just
going to talk about
how strong is not wrong i want you to
know
you have permission
to be strong as a woman and before even
exploring this concept further i want to
define the word strong for you so i i
looked up a bunch of different examples
synonyms
here they go
robust robust is good
sturdy durable
solid resilient tough heavy duty
convincing sound clear persuasive
compelling effective formidable great
intense
fervent deep deep seated that means
convictions fierce powerful potent
passionate ardent that’s where i got my
son’s name from muscular powerful
dazzling bright brilliant
concentrated and
i like this one highly flavorful highly
flavorful there’s not a bad description
in this list but let’s talk about what
is the opposite of strong the opposite
of strong is weak
faint
fragile
dim insipid
and then my favorite indifferent
women who are
weak are indifferent
women who are strong
they are not just
passionate they make a difference and so
strong is not wrong and how many of
you’ve already realized that this life
puts demand on us
to be strong to have strength
marriage requires
strength it does
motherhood requires strength friendships
require strength education requires
strength
taking
responsibility and moving beyond blame
requires
strength
loving your neighbor
requires
strength
now
let’s talk about that woman that we all
say of course she’s strong she’s got all
this helpers in her house the proverbs
31 woman but what it says about her it
says she and i’m just going to read this
proverbs 31 17 she dresses herself
with strength and makes her arms
strong
i’m going to read it from the nlt it
says she is energetic and strong
a hard
worker
and then it goes on to say she makes
sure her dealings are profitable
her lamp burns laid into the night what
does that mean
it doesn’t mean that she just works out
she’s like oh yeah my arms are cut in
photos no she makes herself strong
for a purpose her lamp burns late into
the night means she gets it
done
when it says that she makes sure her
dealings are profitable you know there’s
a lot of things that look like they
deserve our attention
but a woman who understands how to make
her dealings profitable
knows how to focus on the right things
that will not only give her strength but
strength for her family we need to make
sure that we’re not just building
superficial strength so that we look
good in our clothing we need to clothe
ourselves with strengths and learn what
strength and strong looks like in our
lives
proverbs 31 goes on in verse 20 to say
she extends
she extends a helping hand to the poor
and opens her arms to the needy
strong women extend their life they
understand that strength isn’t just for
them and strength isn’t just for their
household they make a decision that the
strength on their life needs to go out
to other people
so that they can lift them as well i
don’t know if you know this but it takes
a whole lot more strength to lift people
than it does to hold them down you know
when john and i were younger and i was
pregnant john and i’m so poor that john
only weighed like 138 and i remember
when i was pregnant i would top out at
like 158 160 and i loved it because i
could sit on him
and hold him down
but i was never able to lift him
strong
women
lift other people they don’t use their
strength to straddle people and hold
them down it goes on to say in verse 25
and 27 she is clothed with strength and
dignity she laughs without fear at the
future wait wait that means if we have
strength and dignity we are positioned
to laugh at the future when she speaks
her words are wise and she gives
instructions with kindness why because
we want to make sure people can hear
what we have to say
she carefully watches everything in her
household and suffers
nothing from
laziness we don’t want to be lazy women
we don’t want to be distracted women we
don’t want to be busy women who are
burning our muscle instead of building
it we want to be women who are lifting
and then i’m going to go with the
ultimate endorsement about why it’s okay
for you to be strong
ephesians 6 verses 10
through 18 in the message paraphrase
says and that about wraps it up he’s
just gone through all of these different
relationships all of these different
dynamics
that are going to acquire strength in
our life and then he says god is strong
and he wants you strong so if you’re
thinking well it’s i need to know no god
is strong
and he wants you his daughter strong so
take everything the master has set out
for you well-made weapons of the best
materials and put them to use so you
will be able to stand up to everything
the devil throws your way this is no
afternoon athletic contest that we walk
away from this is not a bar class people
and forget about in a couple hours
this is for keeps a life or death fight
to the finish against the devil and his
angels
so why
be prepared
you’re up against far more than you can
handle on your own take all the help you
can get every weapon god has issued so
that when it is all over but the
shouting you’ll still be on your feet
truth righteousness peace faith and
salvation are more than words
learn how to apply them
learn how to apply them this is the
season to learn how to apply
peace
learn how to apply
faith salvation we need to know how to
apply these things and it goes on to say
because you’re going to need them
throughout your life god’s word is an
indispensable weapon in the same way
prayer is essential in this ongoing
warfare pray hard and long pray for your
brothers and sisters keep your eyes open
keep each other’s spirits up so that no
one fails
and no one falls behind and drops out
that was a massive amount of information
so i’m gonna break that down to
nine key points number one
god is strong and he wants his daughter
strong number two
his weapons are supreme there’s no
greater weapon number three with those
weapons that he gave you in hand
there is nothing that the enemy can
throw your way that will knock you off
course number four you are in a
spiritual battle between life and death
this is not a joke this is not like a
story this is a spiritual battle between
life and death number five prepare now
so you are not caught off guard number
six
you can’t do it in your own human
strength god knows that so he is the one
that gives us strength
number seven truth righteousness peace
faith and salvation are live apps think
about the applications on your phone use
them number eight god’s word is an
indispensable weapon
god’s word is a
sword
learn how to use it pray the word of god
it is in indispensable if you don’t know
what to pray
pray the word of god and number nine
prayer is not
optional
we need to be a people who prayer
becomes fluent for us it is just
something that comes out and it is easy
and part of our life so i hope you are
encouraged that our heavenly father
anticipated each and every one of our
needs we are in days where we actually
are realizing
i need all these
maybe
two months ago you might have thought
it’s okay if i just have three of these
well now you’re gonna have to take all
of these you’re gonna have to take all
of these things and god is saying hey
girl
pick it up
i’ve done all that i can to equip you
with everything that you have need of
you lay aside the man i wish i would
have been doing this and just step into
a season
of overcoming
the finest
most personalized
infallible
weaponry
has been made for you
these timeless elements have the power
to win battles that are immediate
as well as
go into our future
we are in the midst of a struggle
between light and dark
fear
and faith hope and discouragement
be those who stand in the middle and
declare the strength and light of god
i need you to know beyond a shadow of a
doubt
that strong is not wrong that strong is
right this strong is necessary that
strong is your heritage as a child of
god and that we can actually go in just
one day from being weak in faith
weak in this wonder of god and move into
a place of strong so i’m giving you
permission to be strong so
we are women who understand that our
family
our husbands
our friends
our employers whatever it is
whoever is dependent on us needs us to
be strong in
god in these days so
be strong
it’s not wrong