Rejoicing Our Hearts encourages women to live an authentic life of faith. Much can be said on the topic of faith, lucky for you I’m not going to say it all here! But I think there are some key qualities of a woman who is living an authentic life of faith. And lest you think that I have all of these things mastered in my life ~ let me set the record straight…I do not, but I hope that I am at least “pressing on toward the goal” (Philippians 3:14)

I believe the qualities of a woman living an authtentic life of faith are:

• She is confident and unwavering in her faith. Faith – ‘pistis’ in the Greek NT – is ‘a firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth.’  She is like the psalmist who says: The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? … Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident. ~ Psalm 27:1-3
• She is genuine in her faith. The apostle Paul told his true son in the faith, Timothy that he was mindful or very much aware of his ‘sincere’ faith. The root of the word sincere, ‘anupokritos’ is the word from which we get our word, hypocrisy, which literally means under judgment. The ‘a’ in front of hypocrisy means against or without…so to be sincere is to be without hypocrisy or pretense. What you see is her true self.
• She values His word as truth, obediently conforming her life to its principles. She believes “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” Psalm 119:60 and instead of asking “How does this Scripture apply to my life?” she asks, “How do I conform my life to the truth of this Scripture?” See also Romans 12:2.
• She is honest and truthful about her struggles and her need for grace. 1 John 1:6,8 says “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth…if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” For the most part it is easy to hide the things we struggle with, but a woman wanting to live authentically realizes the need to bring these things into the Light of God’s truth so that He can cleanse us.
• She recognizes her value to God and unique calling in the body of Christ. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared before hand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 We are each specifically crafted by God (Ps. 139), and He has plans and purpose for our lives, and she knows it. She strives to find and carry out that purpose with His help and the help of those around her.
• She shows love to all those who are her brothers and sisters in the household of faith, the Church, the bride of Christ. She knows that Jesus commanded us to “Love one another” just as He has loved us (John 15:12) and that love is patient and kind, it is not jealous; it does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It never fails (ceases or becomes inadequate.) ~ 1 Corinthians 13.

Do you want to live an authentic life of faith in Jesus Christ? Then I hope you will hang out with us here at Rejoicing Our Hears often, because we love spending time with women like you! Come back soon!

Rejoicing with you,

Tina