Is Your Struggle Your Purpose? A Reflection on Women from the Bible

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about purpose these days and have been pondering the women in the Bible and what their purposes were. 

As I reflected on this, I realized that for almost all of the women in the Bible, all we know about them is their struggle and the healing or miracle that followed. Aside from a few, most of these struggles were with infertility, a sin, a brokenness, an illness, or a demon. In all cases, there was some intervention by God. And of course, there were a few examples of female leaders (Esther) and disciples (Lydia).

But overwhelmingly, the women of the Bible faced and overcame a brokenness or struggle. That was their story - pretty much their whole story from what we know about them. Fascinating, right? 

As a woman, I often view my purpose through the lens of my giftedness and what God is calling me to do. But perhaps my purpose is revealing the struggle and the overcoming that will follow eventually, like these women. There’s many aspects of struggle in my life and I can’t overlook that maybe God is trying to reveal something through those. Why else would they be there?

So often we want to escape our struggle or put an end to it. The women in the Bible were no different. Some prayed or waited for years for an end to their struggle. They too probably didn’t see that what they would be known for is their struggle and what came from it - how God revealed Himself and His Power.

Is your struggle your purpose? It may be time to look at it from that lens and ponder that question.