Looking Back to Lives that Point Us to Christ
Editor’s Note: We live in a culture of social media that enables us to observe and examine other people’s lives with just a few clicks and swipes. We know what people are eating, where they’re shopping, what their kids are doing, what songs they’re listening to, and what articles they’re reading. We’re studying others all the time, but what do we have to show for it? Discontent. Discouragement. Envy.
What if we took that impulse to watch others, to know about their lives, and intentionally focused it on people whose example can help us grow in faith and godliness?
Today is Reformation Day, a day that we remember faithful men and women who sacrificed to reform the church. These believers pointed the church back to the truth of the gospel and made this life-changing truth available to everyone. And they have been followed by many more faithful Christians whose lives can teach, challenge, and encourage us. Here’s a glimpse into the life of one woman whose example teaches us to be faithful as we rely on our faithful God.
Meet Sarah Trimmer (1741-1810). Drawing from her own experiences as a mother, she became one of the foremost experts on children’s education of her day. In many of the forty books that she wrote during her lifetime, she emphasized the importance of teaching gospel truths to little hearts and minds. If that isn’t impressive enough, Sarah helped start charity schools throughout England while contributing to the abolition of slavery in the West Indies. And did I mention she was the mother of twelve and regularly started her day at dawn to meditate on the Word?
Most of us probably feel tired just reading everything Sarah accomplished during her sixty-nine years. And we may find our sinful hearts playing the comparison game that we so often play on social media.
Comparing ourselves to other women in this way can be really discouraging. So, what if we studied the biographies of Christian women looking for what these stories teach us about God instead of using them as a standard to measure ourselves?
Remembering God’s Faithfulness
When we study the lives of Christian women like Sarah Trimmer, we can find encouragement in the fact that God was faithful to them in every season of their lives. In the Old Testament, God commands his people to remember not only who he is but also what he has done. When God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he tells him, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” (Ex. 3:15). By referring to himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is reminding Moses of his infinite faithfulness to the patriarchs. And a similar thing is true when we learn about historical believers.
When we look at Sarah’s life, we also see the hand of our faithful God. From an early age, God blessed Sarah with biblical knowledge, intelligence, and writing abilities. God placed Sarah in a position with influential members of society, including the British royal family, which helped her establish charity schools throughout the nation. And God sustained her through the deaths of three children. When we reflect on God’s faithfulness to Sarah, we are reminded that the God of Sarah Trimmer is also our God, and he is faithful to us as well.
Imitating Their Faithfulness
Just as the biblical writers call us to remember God’s faithfulness, they also encourage us to imitate other faithful believers. After exhorting Christians to live godly lives, the writer of Hebrews urges his readers to “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (13:7). While Sarah Trimmer lived hundreds of years after the New Testament was completed, her faithful example is worthy of imitation too.
Throughout her life, Sarah reflected Christ through her roles of wife, mother, and abolitionist. She faithfully loved her husband, patiently taught her children, and truthfully spoke out against the horrors of the African slave trade.
But despite her many accomplishments, Sarah was very aware of how much she needed the gospel. Rather than comparing herself to other women, Sarah measured her life by God's holy standard—a practice worthy of our imitation.
In her personal journal, we find a prayer that models this humble approach:
“And now, O most merciful Father, having to the best of my power searched my heart, and called to mind my transgressions, I humble myself before thee, under a deep sense of my unworthiness. I have offended against thy holy laws.”[1]
However, we don’t find this fellow Christian mother wallowing in despair. Instead, she reminds herself of the gospel:
“but I have this day received the cup of Salvation, and I trust, thou hast graciously pardoned me, for Jesus Christ's sake, my adorable Redeemer.”[2]
By imitating Sarah’s example of comparing ourselves to God's law—not to our social media followers and friends—we see how we need the gospel every day of our lives. And by preaching the gospel to ourselves as she did, we are filled with hope instead of despair. Rather than pointing us to themselves, faithful believers ultimately point us to Jesus Christ.[3]
Relying on Christ’s Faithfulness
Even as we admire and imitate the faithfulness of historical believers, let’s not forget that they were imperfect just like us. Every woman, even a hero of the faith, has fallen short of God’s glory.[4] This could seem depressing, but the truth is, it’s freeing! Just as Sarah desperately needed the gospel, our salvation isn’t dependent upon checking off every box on our to-do list. When we fall into the sinful pattern of basing our worth on earthly performance, we can find hope in the truth of the gospel. Our successes and failures can point us to Jesus. Our Christ-like responses come only by his grace. And when we fail, we're reminded just how much we need our perfect, heavenly Father.
We regularly feel the temptation to compare ourselves to other moms whether we see their stories on social media or read them in a history book. But even when we look at faithful mothers who lived in light of the resurrection, we need not look to them as all we should aspire to be as godly mothers. Instead, when we fail as mothers, we can reflect on the One who has redeemed us through his blood and is faithful to forgive us of our sins in accordance with the richness of God’s grace.[5]
[1] Trimmer, Sarah. Some Account of the Life and Writings of Mrs. Trimmer, with Original Letters, and Meditations and Prayers, Selected from Her Journal, Vol. I. F.C. and J. Rivington, 1816.
[2] Ibid.
[3]1 Corinthians 11:1
[4] Romans 3:23
[5] Ephesians 1:7
