Does This Describe Your Ladies’ Ministry?

by Betty Brock

I really don’t know where to start with helping our ladies to grow. Our ladies are not unified; they can’t seem to agree on anything. So many ladies are working; how do we help them to grow? There are so many other interests demanding their time. Our ladies don’t seem to see the needs of others. Our ladies don’t want to take responsibility. We’re in a rut; we need to make changes. One or two of us ladies do everything. Everyone wants to be the leader. No one wants to be the leader. There are SO many needs. I’m tired!

Have ramblings such as these rumbled around in your head? And maybe out of your mouth?  We could possibly write out such a list pertaining to our home, our marriage, our workplace, our children, etc.  I often have Christian ladies come to me with such lists about some part of their life.  Lately, the question I ask them first is, “Tell me how you have been praying about this matter.”  Some are able to share their prayers with me; many have not prayed at all.

Colossians 1:28-29 gives us our ministry message (Jesus Christ), our method (admonishing and teaching), our scope (every man . . . ladies, too), and our mission (presenting spiritually mature people in Christ Jesus).

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:   Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. 

That’s a full plate!  The passage also gives the how, the power, of this ministry:  “in all wisdom…striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”  Commentator Barnes says that Paul and his fellow-laborers endeavored to manifest true wisdom in the method in which they instructed others.  So, where does this wisdom come from?

James 1:5 tells us that God will give us this wisdom, but we need to ask for it. It is not enough to think about, express to others, make a list, and worry over the obstacles.  We must pray and ask for wisdom to overcome the hindrances.  And we must pray precisely.  Charles Haddon Spurgeon spoke of the opposite of such precise praying, “There is general kind of praying which fails for lack of precision.  It is as if a regiment of soldiers should all fire off their guns anywhere.  Possibly somebody would be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed.”  Such a prayer would go something like this, “And Lord, help the ladies in our church.”

Stymied? Thwarted?  Hindered? If those words describe your service with and for your ladies, pray for God’s wisdom as you work with individual ladies and as you labor in your women’s ministry as a whole.  Pray precisely for individual needs and ministry needs.  We cannot do God’s work in God’s way without God’s wisdom.