Saturday night Devotions

I Peter 3:5-6

     For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.

     For those with a desire to please God, it is helpful to have godly examples to follow, and Peter now gives godly women of today an example to help them see what it looks like to have a life that is pleasing to God.  He points to Sarah.  God had given her the name and title of “princess,” for that is what Sarah means, but the high esteem which God shows her does not cause her to decrease her respect for her husband, and in Genesis 18:12 she calls Abraham “my lord.”  Peter gives this as his only specific example of Sarah’s submissive attitude, and it seems to be enough.  She called her husband her lord and she “obeyed” him even when his plans were doubtful at best as when he told her to tell people she was his sister in Genesis 12.  Sarah is wonderfully blessed by the Lord (Genesis 17:16) and we are told here that women of today can become her daughters and thus heirs to her blessings if they “do good and are not afraid with any terror.”  Somehow Peter connects doing good with not being afraid.  Solomon did so too.  In Proverbs 3:25 Solomon says, “Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes.”  Then in Proverbs 3:27 he says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.”  Sarah is the only one listed by name, but she is not our only example.  Peter says that all “the holy women who trusted in God” acted like this.  May the holy women of our day be encouraged to continue in this example to show submission, good works, and fearlessness, that they, too, might become daughters of Sarah, and like her, provide shining examples for the next generation to follow.