Abigail: a woman of action
Have you ever looked at your circumstances and wondered “will this ever get better?”
- or prayed for strength to live joyfully and faithfully in the midst of them?
- Have you ever felt powerless to change your circumstances and wondered how God could bring good from them?
1 Samuel 25 tells the story of Abigail, a woman whose circumstances were quite difficult…
- we don’t know if she felt powerless at times.
- We don’t even know the extent of how difficult her life was.
What we do know is how she lived in the midst of them.
Abigail is a woman, with all of our emotions, intuition, hopes dreams desires..
- we will see that she is wise, beautiful, tender hearted, and courageous…
- but I can only imagine that there were days that she felt like giving up,
- days that she thought …is this really my life??
- Painful moments when she wondered where God was in the middle of her horrible marriage to a mean and harsh… evil man : Nabal
However, Abigail did not flee her circumstances and she did not stay in a place of powerlessness.
She was a woman of action and is one of the few women with such a powerful role in the scriptures.
5 basic characteristics we see in Abigail that I think sustain her & bring incredible change into her life:
- Abigail had Faith that was greater than her circumstances
- Abigail’s attitude affected her life and others
- Abigail took action
- Abigail was a woman of wisdom & discernment- cultivated an inner life
- Abigail acts in a sacrificial way for the good of another
as you read through her story, see if you can identify these characteristics about her.
I can only imagine that all of us have found ourselves in unbearable circumstances:
they may not come in the form of a husband.., but something in our lives that causes us great pain… something that we cannot control, change or fix…
Something that we have to live with everyday… day in and day out.
Something that had brought us to our knees asking God why He allowed it, why he won’t change it… How long o Lord.
Ponder how Abigail’s characteristics might apply to your life as you face difficult circumstances and seemingly insurmountable odds.
In the midst of unexpected struggles God can take you and your story and use it for good.
But we can be active participants in our lives and in what God is doing in the world around us even in the midst of difficult times…
in the midst of things we can’t control, change, or fix.
In the midst of things we didn’t cause…but that God has allowed in our lives..
We can do this by following the example of Abigail!
