Genuine freedom will require you to get to the heart of the matter—your heart. Breaking the chains of bondage on the outside may take some deep healing inside. Don’t be afraid to seek that healing. You’ll need it to master the balancing act ahead.
A Woman’s Balancing Act
As women, we are expected to be able to split up our time to meet the needs of all the people depending on us and still have something left over. Many women grow weary and give up. Others see the juggling act as far too overwhelming and never start. These women wait for the day to arrive when the demands wind down and they can find time for God and His calling on their lives.
Sometimes I feel like a character in Fiddler on the Roof, a musical set in the small Jewish village of Anatevka, Russia, in 1905. It tells the story of a Jewish milkman, Tevye, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters. The film version opens with a fiddler standing on top of a roof, playing furiously.
Like the fiddler, I often find myself performing a rooftop balancing act, standing on top of the magnificent platform God has provided and attempting to fiddle without falling. How do I, as a woman, strike a balance in my heart between leading and following?
This is part of the balancing act we must master. It takes knowing how to embrace the potential God has placed inside of us, discerning when to take charge in leadership, and then knowing when to lay low long enough to hear the Spirit’s admonition to slow down, calm down and follow.
A woman’s success both in ministry and at home requires great balance. Don’t be an extremist. Submit all that you do and think to the Lord daily in prayer, and learn to hear from Him.
Stand on the Rock of Jesus Christ, and you will become an emotional rock upon which others can depend. Some of us are so extreme in our emotions that no one knows what to expect from us from one day to the next. Today we’re happy, but tomorrow we may be angry, rejecting everyone in sight.
Learn how to be consistent and temper your statements with love. Get control of those rampant emotions with God’s help. You’ll find it’s possible to control even the most passionate of temperaments with work and prayer.
A Secret Place
Through the years, I have learned to set aside a place in my heart and mind to which I can retire from the push and pull of life, a place I carry around with me wherever I go, a place of serenity and peace. Depending on the busyness of my day, I may make it there only once. On other days I am able to escape more often, but only in brief 10-minute periods. Once in a while I have the pleasure of relaxing in my special place for extended periods, delighting in the peace of God that passes all understanding.
Escaping to my private, internal retreat allows me to meet life with renewed confidence and courage. Escaping to yours will do the same for you. Seek that hidden place of peace with God, and determine to find in its serenity the strength you need to begin a new way of living. Move beyond your comfort zone and believe that God will use you as He never has before.
God Has Need of Thee
Let the Lord reveal the endless opportunities you have to serve Him. He has given us only a few years to walk with Him in His harvest fields, so why would we want to make excuses for not helping Him reap?
Let’s forget about fear, intimidation, regret, shame and self-pity. Forget about the disappointments from the past. I know the beauty that’s in you, and I know the pain that’s there, too. God keeps every tear we cry in a bottle, but sometimes you’ve got to take your bottle and dump it out for someone else (Ps. 56:8).
Determine that you will not waste your gifts another day or even another moment. God has a great plan and purpose for your life, and all you have to do is say yes. What are you waiting for?
Serita A. Jakes is the wife of Bishop T.D. Jakes and first lady of the Potter’s House in Dallas.
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