If you’re like me, everywhere you go you find women in crisis. It might be divorce, adultery, loss of a loved one, cancer diagnosis, job loss, and so many other issues.
Do you feel prepared to help? I know I wasn’t the first time I was faced with a woman in a major crisis. But it was then when I sought out more experienced ministers on our staff to see how to help and when to know I needed to refer a woman to professional help. For that reason, one of the first things we knew we needed for women’s leaders after Lifeway Women was born was a resource to help leaders who were ministering to women.
Additionally, I desired to help women share their own stories so they can connect with hurting women just like my sweet friend did as we journeyed together through daughters who struggled greatly in many ways. My friend was further along and much wiser than I was at the time, but she modeled for me how to walk this walk in the power, peace, and joy of Christ. I desired to do the same thing for others.
Here are four ways to equip yourself as you help women in crisis:
- Spiritually: Pray about opportunities to reach out to women in crisis. Realize that you need to be healthy in your walk with Christ to best help a hurting woman. Stay in the Word and continually ask God how and when to help.
- Emotionally: Ask yourself why you are helping others. Is it out of a personal need you have to help and to be needed? Or because you really have a desire to see a person transformed?
- Honestly: Are you prepared to care? Can you really help them or is this responsibility for someone else?
- Mentally: Do you know good listening skills? Do you know the ways to open conversation rather than slam the door by the way you communicate with her?
Ruby Bea Peters said, “A circle of responsibility and a circle of concern are two different things.” You must be walking closely with the Lord and hearing from Him to know when He is asking you to personally help a hurting woman, or if He is asking you to assist her in finding help from someone else.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 is a beautiful passage of how Christ comforts us SO THAT we can comfort others.
How are you seeking to live this out in your life and your church?