Welcome back to my series all about the amazing things we learn from Proverbs 31! If you missed the introduction to this new series, click HERE.
“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
First of all, I just want to reiterate from the introduction last week that although this is stating “wife” this scripture pertains to all of us. We are all the Bride of Christ and are all learning how to represent Him to the world, our communities, and our families. I know its easy to write this scripture off if you are single, but keep in mind your important role as the Bride of Christ eternally and also the possibility of someday having the role of a wife if God wills that for you. I’m not here to say that God wills marriage for all His daughters, but if that is a desire of your heart, remember to trust that desire to Christ. Psalm 37:4 tells us “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
One of the things I truly love about Prov. 31 is the fact that I can receive wisdom from this passage in two forms. As a practical person, I tend to find a lot of joy in just the day to day wisdom and guidance Proverbs 31 provides. As a follower of Jesus, I find immense delight and satisfaction in the fact that this scripture is chipping away at me and making me more like Him.
With that, lets dive in! I will be looking at what I call the eternal aspects of this scripture, and the practical aspects of this scripture.
“An excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
Eternal: Your value in Christ Jesus
We all know how beautiful, desirable, costly, and rare jewels are. I love this word picture of jewels. You can’t just pick one up a ruby or diamond anywhere! Have you ever seen the process of mining for jewels? To find a jewel stone, you have to dig through a lot of muck and dirt and stuff that really isn’t valuable to find that jewel. After that there is a tedious refining process that involves cleaning, cutting, and polishing.
You are that precious and valuable– and even more– to Jesus as His Bride. You are worth all that work and sacrifice to find and prepare. You are so much more than what we on earth consider to be so valuable, precious, and rare.
Do you see yourself as valuable in the eyes of your savior? What do you place your worth in? Your kids? Your home? Your job? Your appearance? Your put-togetherness? Your husband?
I think there is a significant reason to this verse on value coming first before all other verses on this passage all about women. I feel that this verse is here to show us that if we do not place our value where it needs to be– in Jesus, nothing else can fall into place.
Women today are swarmed with media telling them they are objects. That its not okay to be live a simple life. That you are less of a woman if you choose to stay home. That you are less of a woman if you are not dominating the men in your life. That you are less than a woman if you do not have a man in your life. That you are less of a woman if you are not beautiful and put together. THESE ARE LIES! Lies directly from the mouth of Satan.
You are not less of a woman for any of those things! You are a woman saved by the grace of a savior who found you so valuable that he went to the cross and died for you!! For you. For me.
You are precious in His sight.
1 Peter 2:4a “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.“
“An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.”
Practical: Living excellently in our relationships
Now that we’ve established just how precious you are in the eyes of Jesus, I think its important to talk about how this applies to our earthly relationships.
Ladies– you should not settle for any man who does not look at you and see you like Jesus does– amazingly precious and wondrous. Proverbs 18:22 tells us “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”A woman/wife is a blessing from God and any man who does not see you that way does not deserve to be in the same room as you. You hear me on this?
I made the mistake once of being with a guy who did not care a hoot about my heart. He did not value me as a precious being who deserved special care and honor. Deep down, I knew I wanted to be treasured, but I convinced myself that this was only as good as it could get. Boy was wrong! It took me a long time to heal and forgive myself for not putting my value in Christ and allowing this person to mistreat me. Its heart breaking when women remain in and even pursue those types of relationships. Jesus has so much for us.
Proverbs 4:23 says “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life.” Keep your hearts ladies. The NIV tells us to “guard our hearts.” Be vigilant and let no one have that heart until Christ binds you together with that person in marriage. If you are married, keep that heart unto the one you are married to!
Often when I attended events for young women in college, the term “guard your hearts” was often teamed with the message of abstinence. Though I came to discover that you can give your heart away, or even pieces of your heart away with out having any physical interactions. Pining away after someone, or even something is putting your heart in their/its hands.
One of my friends in college talked about a past relationship that was not God honoring. She explained that her whole mood and happiness was based on anything/everything her boyfriend would say/do or didn’t say/do. She allowed herself to let him control her heart before it was any of his business to have.
For those of us who are married, we need to be reminded that although our husbands are now one with us in marriage, Jesus needs to be our first love. And thats true for all of us no matter where we are in life. A wife who lives excellently is a wife whose heart is centered on Jesus first.
I heard this saying once and I just love it. Its called the JOY principal.
Jesus first.
Others second.
You last.
Eph. 2:4 reminds us of the enormity of His love. “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” He saved us and gave us life even when we were in sin.
Lastly, I want to say a word about living excellently. We know we are valuable in the eyes of Christ, we know that we need to choose relationships that reflect Christ, so I’m going to ask the question… are you an excellent wife/woman? What do you think you need to work on in your journey to becoming an excellent wife/woman? And ultimately, how can you bring more excellence into your walk with Jesus?
Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for loving me so much, for seeing so much value in me that you died to save me from my sins. Lord forgive me for the times I don’t put you first and I don’t find my value in you. Make me more like you Jesus. Help me Lord as I strive to reflect you more. Only through Your grace can I become a more excellent wife, mom, and woman. Please do that work and me and in every person who is following this study with me. Thank you Jesus, thy will be done.
In your name– Amen.
Next week is Thanksgiving, so I’ll have my next Proverbs 31 post two weeks from now. See you then!