In today’s episode, Rick Hughes brings to light the inspiring teachings of Proverbs 31, focusing on the importance of spiritual wisdom and grace in the life of a god-fearing woman. We examine the concept of inner strength through the lens of biblical stories and teachings, offering encouragement and insights to modern women seeking to balance their roles as mothers, wives, and individuals with a profound respect for God and His word.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. I’d like to invite you to stick around, stay with me for a few minutes. About 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education. But we do this without any kind of manipulation because we don’t seek to solicit money. We’re not asking you for money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re not trying to hustle you up to join anything. We’re simply trying to give you accurate information. Hopefully that will verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you can do that, you have the freedom, the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan that’s up to you. But remember that God gave us two ends, one of those ends we think with and the other one we sit on. So success in your life depends on which one you use. Heads, you’ll win. Tails, you’ll lose. The Bible says in Romans 12, 3, in a modified, expanded translation, stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance. beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility, as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. So success in life is about what you think, thinking divine viewpoint or thinking human viewpoint. Does the Bible comment on what you should think? Absolutely it does. excuse me it says let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus that’s a mandate to think like he thought and it starts with the next verse says he humbled himself and made himself of no reputation humility is the key to orienting to God’s grace submission to authority recognition of authority These go together. Recognition and submission means you understand the authority of God’s word. And you submit. And you have a volition. God is a gentleman. He didn’t force you to do anything. He gives you the choice. And you can make your own decisions about what you want to do, how you want to live, but you will be held accountable for your life. And remember, bad decisions limit future options. So if you make enough bad decisions, You’re just not going to have very many options left. So my prayer is that you will listen to the Flatline. You will let me encourage you to get under a well-qualified pastor, that you will find a man who can teach you God’s Word consistently on a daily basis. You might not have a pastor in the area that you live, but there are many that I know that can supply you with DVDs or MP3s at no charge. They won’t sell you anything. They won’t say for a gift of $19.95, I’ll send you my latest package of messages, nothing like that. But it is available, and I know several men who are great, wonderful pastors who who have been in the pulpit for over 40 years that can supply you with wonderful Bible teaching in your home in the form of a DVD or an MP3 or books or things like this that you can study. And this is the way that I study at home. I do have a local church that I attend, but every day, every morning when I get up, I put in a DVD to listen to the teaching of the Word of God from my wonderful friend and my pastor. And it’s a way that I grow spiritually. And much of what I teach you, I would say 90% of what I teach you, I learn from my pastor. And so I hope you’re listening. I hope you understand the importance. I’m not a pastor. I’m just an evangelist. And my job is to encourage you to get you to a point where you want to grow, where you want to learn more. And I pray that this radio show is enlightening you and giving you the opportunity to see that. Today is Mother’s Day. And I want to talk about my kind of lady. My kind of lady. And we will start off by talking about the book of Proverbs chapter 31. Many people refer to this on Mother’s Day, I’m sure, but we’re going to like a little bit of a different look at it. Proverbs 31 30 to start off with, we’ll take the negative approach. It says, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. I know some very beautiful women, and they have wonderful husbands and charm. They’re very charming people, very beautiful people. But that’s not what gives them their beauty. What gives them their beauty is something else. They fear the Lord. They have great respect for God. You do not have to be a beautiful person on the outside to be a beautiful person on the inside. And look at verse, Proverbs 31. We’ll go back to talking about what is the inside now. See, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain is the outside. But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. That’s the inside. She has respect for God. and now verse 25 and 26 backing up from 31 30 backing up to 25 and 26 we’ll see what’s on the inside the bible says strength and dignity are her clothing and she smiles at the future verse 26 she opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue Here is the real assets of an amazing woman, my kind of lady. This passage is well worth reading if you’re a mom or a wife, since it outlines the real inner beauty of an amazing woman. This proverb, Proverb Chapter 31, was written by King Lemuel, of whom we know very little. We do know these words of wisdom were taught to him by his mother, I assume she was quite a virtuous lady. But among other things, she warned him of sexual immorality. Solomon had warned his own sons in Proverbs 5, 1 through 6, where he spoke openly about the seductive woman and the results of listening to her flattery in your life. And he told his sons that if they would listen to his wisdom and pay attention to his understanding, that they could have discretion and insight into how the seductive seducer works her magic over the willing man. Again, he told his sons that if they would listen to his wisdom and pay attention to his understanding, that they would have discretion and insight into how the seductive seducer works her magic over the willing man. And then he goes on to describe it in Proverbs 5, 3 through 6. He says, For the lips of the adulteress drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech. But in the end, she’s as bitter as wormwood. sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of Sheol. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways are unstable. She does not know it. So we recognize right away that this seductive seducer uses flattery to seduce the man. Her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end, it’s bitter as wormwood. In other words, it’s going to make you very sick. Sharp as a two-edged sword, it’s going to cut you and destroy you. And her feet go down to death into the steps of Sheol. She also cautioned him about the effects of a king drinking alcohol, she being King Lemuel’s mother. She cautioned him not only about the seducer as a king, but she cautioned him about the effects of drinking a lot of alcohol and the effects that it had on his leadership. In Proverbs 31, 4 and 5, it says, It’s not for kings, O Lemuel, it’s not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to desire strong drink, for they will drink and forget what is decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. So here’s just some practical information from King Lemuel’s mother that Solomon included in the Proverbs. Very wise of Solomon since he had said the same things to his sons. But when we get to verses 10 through 31 in Proverbs chapter 31, We find King Lemuel’s mother’s wisdom in describing a woman of virtue and a woman who’s worthy of praise. This sort of woman, Proverbs 31, 31 says, let her works praise her in the gates or in the public square. In other words, let everyone in town know what an amazing lady this is. The virtues that she describes to her son are not only outward characteristics but internal virtue as well. And I want to focus on the internal virtues of that amazing woman this morning. So let’s start off with Proverbs 31.30. And if you’re a wife or a mother, I hope you’ll use this study as a mirror to gauge how you yourself are doing. Proverbs 31.30, again, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. charm is deceitful charm is the hebrew word chin pronounced cane k-a-i-n the way we pronounce it king and this word refers to elegance or favor or beauty meaning outward beauty is not the most important feature in a woman outward beauty is not the most important feature in a woman Charm is deceitful, pronounced shakar, meaning it’s a fraud or a deception. I’m using the Hebrew words. That’s how this was written in the Hebrew. And so let’s remember this. Her charm is deceitful. It’s a fraud. It’s a deception. And beauty is vain. And beauty is vain. Hebrew word yafi means splendor or graceful. Is vain. Hevel, a vapor, transitory, unsatisfactory. So again, charm is deceitful. Charm, the word refers to the elegance or the favor of beauty, meaning outward beauty, is not the most important feature in a woman. Her charm is deceitful. It’s a fraud. It’s a deception. Beauty is vain. Again, in this verse, Hebrew word, meaning splendor or gracefulness. Her splendor is vain. It’s transitory. It’s unsatisfactory. So here’s a couple of principles after we did through all of that. Here it is. One, the charm of a beautiful woman can be a fraud. She may simply use her beauty, and this is what King Lemuel’s mother was warning him about. She may simply use her beauty and her charm to manipulate you. principle. Beauty is fleeting. It does not last forever. I mean, you can look in the mirror, can’t you, ladies? You remember what you used to look like when you were 18, 19, 20? Go look in the mirror today. Beauty is fleeting. It does not last forever. And point three, if this is all a man wants in his wife or a woman friend, he’s going to be greatly disappointed if that’s all he’s looking for, only beauty. And four, the ability to speak with flattery. And the ability to look amazing is not how you gauge a woman’s true beauty, because the real beauty of a woman is in her soul. That’s the real beauty of a woman. Notice the next part of Proverbs 31 30. But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. This implies a personal relationship with God. To fear is the Hebrew word yad-rah, and it means to stand in awe or to respect God and his mandates. The first thing I want to remind you of this morning, ladies, is the number one priority in your life should be to respect God and obey his word. It’s not how attractive you are. It’s not what kind of shape you’re in. It’s what kind of shape your soul is in. What kind of shape is your soul is in? Sure, you may do yoga and you may do Pilates and you may do this and you may do that. And you may keep your body toned. You may be very beautiful. You may go to the hairdresser. You may go to the pedicurist. You may go to a lot of different places. But what’s in your soul? Is there unhappiness and bitterness in your soul? Is there an empty longing in your soul, wishing that somebody or something could fill it? The great women that are in the Bible, the great women are the women who respect God and his word. naming a few like Rahab the harlot at Jericho who hid the Jewish spies overnight. She’s mentioned in Joshua chapter 2 and also in Joshua chapter 6. And she feared God. She recognized the Jewish God was the God of all gods. And only she and her family were spared when Joshua overthrew Jericho in Joshua chapter two. Also mentioned in the Bible is Lydia. one of the first converts to Christianity in Acts 16, 14, and 15, Lydia, and even Ruth and Esther, two ladies of the Old Testament whose lives reflect God’s grace provisions totally. So the Bible has a lot to say about amazing ladies, wonderful ladies, Rahab, Lydia, Ruth, Esther, and many others. I didn’t have time to go through a list of all the amazing women in the Bible, but you can think about Mary Magdalene of the New Testament who was the first to come to the empty tomb the morning of the resurrection. You can think about the other Mary and Salome who came with her. You can think about many great New Testament ladies as well. So Isaiah gives a warning in the book of Isaiah to the women of Judah, the southern kingdom. And he warns about what was coming to them from the Assyrian invasion that would occur in 701 B.C. Here’s the way he approaches this warning to the women of Judah. Isaiah 32, 9, rise up ye women that are at ease. Hear my voice, ye careless daughters. Give ear to my speech, the Hebrew word for rise up means pay attention to. I believe that unless the ladies of America, the mothers and the daughters and the wives, pay attention to the word of God, we won’t have a country much longer. I believe you are the backbone of the country. I believe it’s your faith, your encouragement, your stability that stabilizes the man in the marriage and the home. So rise up, you women that are at ease. It’s not a time to be at ease. The only true objective, authentic textbook about women that I can find, and there are a lot of books about ladies for sale. Go to Barnes & Noble or Amazon. You’ll find them. But the Word of God is the only true, authentic textbook on women. I promise you. So the principle is this, that in a nation where there’s no respect for the word of God, the woman’s status is lower than the status of a horse or a cow or a sheep, and that’s true in the world today. So the greatest assistance to any woman comes from God’s word. No matter what a woman possesses, be it exterior beauty, materialistic things, even status in society, all of these are utterly and totally meaningless unless the woman has inner beauty. inner happiness and stability, which only God provides through his word for each born-again believer. Is that you? Do you have that inner happiness, inner stability as a mom, as a wife, as a daughter? Can you say you have that? You should. As you learn the protocol plan of God, under a well-qualified pastor, the Holy Spirit will take the things that are deposited into your soul called a treasure, the treasure of God’s word. By the way, the treasure is the Greek word thesaurus. It’s a word treasure. So as you have a word treasure in your soul, it gives you wisdom, understanding, discernment, and insight. This will deliver you in your life. This will make sure that by living by God’s word, you will have a wonderful, productive, amazing life. But you can make another decision. You can decide that you’re going to do it your way. Like Frank Sinatra said, I did it my way. How’d that work out for him? Not too good. You’re going to do it your way. You’re going to marry the wrong man at the wrong time, the wrong way, for the wrong reasons. and you’re gonna wind up miserable. Or you could wait on God’s logistical provision of grace, the man he designed for you, the man he deployed for you. And so that’s a word of encouragement to you unmarried ladies that will be one day mothers and wives. Rise up, you women that are at ease. Quit laying back, waiting, just enjoying life. You have to understand you’re in the middle of an angelic conflict here. There’s an angelic conflict going on, and Satan is seeking to gain an advantage over you, over your children, over your husband, over your life. Here’s a principle for a woman to be truly happy. She must put first things first. And what should be first? God’s word. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That’s in the Bible. And I know I don’t have time to study, you say. I’m busy raising children. They have to be at basketball. They have to be at soccer. They have to be at ballet. They have to be at wherever they have to be. The devil’s very good at creating distractions. Satan’s very good at getting you to lose track of time so that eventually you do not even spend time looking into the Word of God. You don’t have a pastor that you listen to. You don’t have a pastor that you study under. Oh, you may pray when you need a miracle or when you want the genie in the eight ball to pop out and make it go away. That’s God. But as far as any spiritual growth, it’s not there because you have not put first things first. You have put the first thing last. You’ve ignored the Word of God. You’ve ignored the plan of God. As you’ve been busy tending to your children and tending to the needs of your husband and tending to your household, those things are important. No one’s saying they’re not. But first things must be first. Here’s another principle. Glamour will not carry you through life. A wonderful lady has something wonderful in her soul. And that is what the verse said in verse 30, Proverbs 31, respect for the Lord, fear the Lord. So the true strength of a woman is her inner beauty, which is simply a thought pattern produced by God the Holy Spirit. when he is filling her, and divine viewpoint in her soul replaces human viewpoint thinking. So here’s where the problem is. Are you under control of the Holy Spirit? How do you lose control? By committing sin. When you sin, whether it’s a mental attitude sin, a sin of the tongue, or an overt sin, you quench the Holy Spirit, and you grieve God’s Holy Spirit. There is a problem-solving device to solve that. It’s called Rebound. You can rebound, problem-solving device number one. You can go to God the Father and confess your sin to him, as 1 John 1 says, and he will be faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. This is how you regain the filling of the Holy Spirit. But if you’re going to ever regain your spiritual momentum, you must decide. Just like you have to decide to lose weight, you have to decide to get in shape, you have to decide to do this. I mean, you use your volition every day to decide something. When will you decide it’s time to get back to God’s word? When will you decide it’s time to start making first things first again? That’s the true strength that you should possess. The true inner beauty in your soul should be divine viewpoint thinking. Then you will understand grace orientation, doctrinal orientation. You’ll understand impersonal love. All of these are problem-solving devices we’ve taught before and can teach you again. And these are things you must have to have maximum happiness and capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for living. It all comes from the word of God in your soul. Proverbs 31, 25, strength and dignity are her clothing. Whose clothing? The woman who fears the Lord. Inner strength is what it’s talking about, strength. The Hebrew word az means boldness, security, or strength. This is the woman of great inner strength. and that inner strength comes only from faith and trust in god’s plan and god’s provisions the principle is she’s not disillusioned with life she’s not discouraged by circumstances she’s not bitter she’s not jealous she’s not possessive she has strength and dignity dignity is the hebrew word hadar meaning honor based on divine viewpoint she understands the authority of her husband she understands her responsibilities And Proverbs 31, 15 talks about this sort of woman. It says she arises while it’s still night and gives food to her household. Proverbs 31, 19, she extends her hand to the poor and stretches out her hand to the needy. And her inner strength is found in Proverbs 31, 26. She opens her mouth in wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her lips. The only way you get wisdom is to cycle the word of God through your soul. It comes in as gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S, the Greek word gnosis or knowledge. but it hasn’t done you any good until you, by faith, believe it and apply it, or the Bible uses the Greek word epinosis, or full knowledge. Full knowledge is what we call sophia, or the Greek word wisdom. Wisdom is an amazing thing because it gives you discernment, it gives you insight, and you don’t get that any other way than through the intake of the Word of God. So when this woman speaks, she gives the wisdom of God’s word and the plan of God’s word, doctrinal orientation. She teaches kindness, grace orientation. So here’s two things she does. She teaches doctrinal orientation to her children, her husband, her friends, and grace orientation. That’s what comes out of her mouth, nothing else. Solomon said he wrote these Proverbs to give wisdom and instruction and to give the gift of discernment from understanding God’s plan. He said in Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and that’s the one thing that fools despise, knowledge. I pray you’ve been encouraged. I pray you’ve been enlightened on this Mother’s Day so that when you look at yourself in the mirror of Proverbs 31, You will see the reflected image of an amazing woman, a woman of true virtue, true integrity, true dignity. That’s the woman that God’s looking for. I sure hope it’s you. I hope this has encouraged you, and you will re-listen to this if you need to. Contact me anytime you need some assistance. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
