Chosen. Valued. Loved. Called. These are the words God sings over His beloved in His Word. So, why do we have a hard time believing Him? Why when God calls us to rise up into all He’s designed us to be, suddenly becomes the part in our stories where we feel too inadequate, too limited, and too stuck to ascend toward the amazing promises God sings over us? Why do we allow our past hurts and failures to hold us down, push us back, and count us out to the point of deficiency as we attempt to transition into the next level of our rising? Is there something we’re unaware of? Perhaps there is, and when we wake up from our slumber and learn how to rise well, we’ll become a force to be reckoned with. 

I recently watched the Barbie movie with my daughter and as we came out of the cinema we both felt a renewed sense of empowerment, of being heard and an understanding of how all those unrealistic expectations that are bestowed onto young girls through the projected image that is everything ‘Barbie’ slowly became an acceptance within society which no female is ever going to be able to rise to. The takeaway for me was that whichever gender decides to totally ‘run the world’ there will always follow a sense of unbalance and unrest. 

A force to be reckoned with certainly empowers those who are struggling with identity and a sense of where they belong, however, becoming the all-powerful, strong, and commanding ones causes the most dominant gender to call all the shots, leaving the ones who are deemed weak and feeble behind and forgotten, like a box of discarded dolls that are no longer necessary in the ‘force to be reckoned with’ motif.   

I’ll admit, there have been many advances in recent years in addressing the oppression and prejudice over women being denied the calling God placed on their lives, especially in church ministry. The devil knows that when women are united together, they are a force to be reckoned with, who cannot be ignored once they wake up and rise up into their God-given destiny. And yet, like the Barbie movie, unbalance can occur in our rising, regardless of how called we feel, creating an uprising rather than a rising up to be a force for good as we dogfight and confront every man who has the audacity and nerve to try and silence the song God granted upon His daughters.   

Ever since the moment the serpent hoodwinked Eve into believing the lie that God was ‘holding out on her because when she ate the forbidden fruit something powerful would awaken and she would become like God, possessing knowledge of both good and evil, we have coveted its mouth-watering, wisdom-granting beauty.’ (Genesis 3:4-6 TVT) And in spite of God’s warning, Adam and Eve’s rebellion not only severed their relationship with God but with each other. Working together as a team, now became blame and shame as they faced the consequences of their actions. “It was she! The woman You gave me as a companion put the fruit in my hands, and I ate it.” (Genesis 3:12 TVT) Yeah, nice one, Adam. 

All the same, even after thousands of years, the apple of our rebellious ways hasn’t fallen that far from the tree and the serpent still wraps his coils around our thinking as we blame each other for our mistakes which only creates more rivalry, more fighting with each other in the decision on who is the stronger, the more powerful force to be reckoned with. Sadly, all this tug-of-war between each other isn’t what our Creator designed us to do, and when our relationship with God is reduced to a ‘long-term, long-distance, low commitment’ one, then our understanding of why He created each one of us is lost to a reality He never designed us to be in.

In her book, Without Rival, Lisa Bevere acknowledges gender rivalry and says, “It is an all-out war against the image bearers of God, both male and female. The last thing we need to be caught doing is fighting amongst each other!” I quite agree. She goes on to say that women need to be brave as we have been taught to silence our voices because we’re too afraid of our strength and nobody has shown us how to steward that strength well and make ourselves heard. A force to be reckoned with comes from rising well and doing it God’s way as one gender lording over the other was never God’s intention. 

Regardless of whether you’re a fan of the new Barbie movie or not, one thing is clear, over the years she has given girls the space to imagine, dream, and create. God has also given us room to imagine, dream and create, but to do it with Him and not on our own. We need to work together, just as God intended, and when both genders feel chosen, valued, loved, and called, the enemy’s tactics he devises against us, pitting one gender against the other, will not have the same power over us. When we become a team, working together as our Creator designed us to do, we will become a force to be reckoned with that knows without a rival or a shadow of a doubt who we are and whose we are. And when we rise up together we will definitely send that slippery snake packing because we’ll be a force to be reckoned with! 

Wendy xo       

Have you watched the new Barbie Movie? What were your takeaway thoughts?