Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
– Proverbs 31:30
Oh, what a wonderful picture of biblical womanhood, of the dignity and true beauty of a woman who fears the Lord. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. These are worldly descriptions of what, yes, the culture around us would say matters most. Charm and beauty, attractiveness, and looks and personality. That’s what matters most.
Proverbs 31:30 declares God’s desire for women.
Instead, God declares what matters most for a woman is for her to fear the Lord, to revere God, to walk with honor for God, desire to glorify God in all of who God is, and the longing to be holy as God is holy. This kind of picture and a woman is to be praised, I want to picture praised women who fear God, praised women who live in the worship of God. And in light of this first part of me right now and where my mind is going is I just want to praise different women I know in my life who have had a huge impact on my life, who fear the Lord, from my mom to my wife. And I’m just thinking of so many women, so many sisters in Christ who fear God.
So that’s one takeaway from this verse. Praise women today who fear God. Encourage, thank, and acknowledge God’s grace in women today who fear the Lord. Praise them. Tell them how great they are by God’s grace. I encourage you. This is a clear takeaway from Proverbs 31:30. Tell women today, and think of any age who fear the Lord. Praise them. Just encourage them today. Then, obviously, let’s pray for this. And, well, if you are a woman, pray for this in your life. Obviously, this applies to men, but the specific picture in Proverbs 31 is a woman who fears the Lord.
Proverbs 31:30 calls women to fear the Lord.
So to pray for this, if you are a woman, to pray for this in your life and for all of us to pray for this and the lives of any females in our lives. I just want to pray this over my wife and over my two daughters, and I want to pray this over all kinds of other women who I know, and sisters of Christ who I long to see thrive. That they would thrive not based on what the world says matters most, but based on what God says matters most.
So God, we do, we pray this for every single woman who’s listening to this right now. Every single woman we know, every single little girl, God, we pray that you would help them to fear you, to not seek after charm and beauty according to this world’s definition of what matters most. God, we pray that they would seek after your definition of what matters most, that they would live today in fear of you, in awe of you, in awe of what it means to be in a relationship with you, to walk with you in holiness and to give glory and honor and praise to you with their lives. God, help them to walk in the fear of you knowing this is true beauty, that this is the wonder and dignity of what it means to be a woman is to fear you.
This verse encourages us to praise women who fear God.
And God, we pray that as your people, you would help us to obey Proverbs 31:30. Help us praise women who fear you, to lift them up, to edify them, to encourage them. Help us live to serve them in such a way that we help them fear you. That we don’t look at women, oh God, we pray this for all of us, that we would look at women through your eyes, that we would not look for charm and beauty according to this world, but that we would look at women with a longing to help them, to serve them, to pray for them, to encourage them to live in the fear of you. Oh God, we pray this over all the women who are coming to our minds right now.
Prayer for the Daizhan People
And God, for women far from us. I think about the people group we’re praying for today, the Daizhan people of China. How in the old days when a Daizhan couple decided to marry, the groom would select a date, gather flute players, and dance around that bride’s home until nightfall. Then he’d bring his daughter into his arms and they would go off for the wedding. And, oh God, we pray for Daizhan women to experience the beauty of what it means to know you.
Oh God, to know you, Jesus, and to walk in the fear of you. God, we pray this for Daizhan women, and for men among the Daizhan people. God, please… May they be reached with the good news of your grace. That they might experience life and beauty, the wonder what it means to walk in the fear of you. We pray all this according to Your word in Proverbs 31:30. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
