By Cindy Koch –

Our story of woman follows a storyline of love, the greatest virtue given by God. But even more, we were made to love, just as we were made to breathe. Wisdom has taught us we have been created to love one another. Wisdom moves our relationships express love to someone else. Wisdom has shaped our convictions and principles, emboldening us to love our neighbor, our spouse, our child, and our friend.

Our story began with a woman who was created to freely love God. Knit into the fibers of her being, God was the center of her praise. Hedged in by His words of life spoken all around her, God was the focus of her prayers. Bountifully displayed before her eyes, her refraining from God’s tree of judgment was her loving worship every time she did not eat.  She was not forced by God’s hand to love Him, but she had no choice in the love that was first created for her.

Now, we have spent many years outside of the Garden of Eden, far, far away from that unblemished relationship that freely loves our Creator. As we remember, Adam and Eve traded the spotless image of God for their own selfish and deadly version of mankind. They rejected their identity of love which the Creator gave them as the foundation for their body and soul. Since the Garden, we are also unwilling and unable to be that loving creation He made us to be. We all have shamefully shuffled along as a seductress who has forgotten her first love, her one true God. And so, our story travels through the wilderness of a forgotten love, a forgotten identity, a forgotten story.

Daughter, you are different now. Something amazing happened when you truly heard your story. Suddenly, you resemble someone from long ago, back from the beginning of our story. Your restored will is loving her God, and His Word beams from your smile. Your obedient path is already alight where your feet step. Your submissive love pours out of your re-created heart. On account of Christ, you are restored in the image of God.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Your service to others flows from this new identity. You have been recreated, free to love as you were created. Wisdom speaks into your ears and rushes through your veins. Even our questions about teaching, leading, ushering, reading, speaking, ministering are all colored with the blood of Christ. But you are also forgiven when you do not love, free from punishment. Your identity does not change with your actions. Your sinful, ignorant past was killed on the cross with Christ. He has already dressed you in his white wedding clothes. Right now, you are his beloved bride, and nothing can snatch you away from his side. Right now, you have been made new, and you remember you were never on your own.

Every “what to do now” begins and ends with your remembered story. Our love may even act differently in various times and places, but there are parts of the ancient story that never change.  We are women who all confess the same truth about our story. We are women created in a special way by God. We are sinful women redeemed by Christ. This is not my own wisdom, these are not my own actions of love, but this is the Wisdom of Christ.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:19-20)

Christ loves patiently; Christ loves kindly. He does not envy; He does not boast; He is not proud. Christ does not dishonor others; He is not self-seeking; He is not easily angered;He keeps no record of wrongs.  Christ does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  And Christ lives in you.

This is your story.

*Adapted from Cindy’s Book, Woman: The Forgotten Story. Click here to order from Amazon.