Between God's promises in our life and the palace of our divine purpose is always the process that molds us into the person we need to be to stay seated in the palace.

Do not entertain the enemy's questions about how valuable you are.

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.

Without this playing with fantasy, no work has ever come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of imagination is incalculable.

The ezer is a warrior. Like the man, she is also God's creative masterpiece--a work of genius and a marvel to behold--for she is fearfully and wonderfully made. The ezer never sheds her image-bearer identity. Not here. Not ever. God defines who she is and how she is to live in his world. That never changes.

Eve was created to know and walk with God and to make him known to others by reflecting his character in her life. This is a woman's true path to fulfillment and meaning — the only way we will ever discover who we are and find our purpose. And it is accessible to all of us.

When God created human beings in his 'image' and 'likeness,' he was designating us as his representatives on the earth. Instead of running things directly himself, he chose us as his intermediaries to run things here in this world. As his image bearers, we speak and act on his behalf.

Every human being has a strategic role in God's purposes for the world. Every human being possesses a derived significance--grounded in God himself. And every human being is summoned to the highest of all possible aspirations--not to be God, but 'to be like' God himself. God is the standard for who we are and what our mission is in this world. By pursuing this loftiest of all goals, we move toward true flourishing as human beings.

By making us 'a little lower' than himself, God affixed the highest possible value on his daughters and his sons.

Our identity as God's image bearers casts in cement a fundamental equality, dignity, and purpose among all human beings--truth that if embraced and acted on would make the world a better place. But this is just hors d'oeuvres. For God isn't just giving us existence, exceedingly high rank, and the whole world too, which in itself is a lot to absorb. He is giving us himself!

We are God's eyes and ears, his hands and feet, his voice in this world. He didn't just level the playing field between men and women; he raised the bar sky high for both sexes, for he wants his image bearers to aspire, to push ourselves, and to reach toward the high calling he has entrusted to us.

Our strengths and gifts are not worth much if we allow them to lie dormant... If we do not hone our gifts and live on the ready instead of in a default mode of looking to others, in a crisis or under pressure we are at a loss to use our voices, make decisions, stand our ground, or take the initiative that our circumstances demand.