Wonder Woman in Training

I recently watched the Wonder Woman movie and I’m obsessed!
I literally want to be Wonder Woman.
I may have to buy a Wonder Woman costume for my preschool dress-up parties. One of the awesome things about working with preschoolers is they don’t judge you for wearing superhero costumes or pajamas.

I absolutely love when a movie inspires me. Wonder Woman is strong, beautiful, loyal, courageous, honest, and a kick-butt awesome fighter. She's a great role model for young, and not so young women, to be warriors - standing for what is right when the world wants us to sit down and let evil triumph.

But, beyond that, my favorite part of the movie was one very specific line spoken by Wonder Woman:

“It’s not about what we deserve but about what we believe. And I believe in love.”

For writers, one line can make or break a book or a movie. One line can grip your heart. That line spoken by Wonder Woman is the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a nutshell. It’s a beautiful explanation of the unconditional love of God and the salvation message.

This summer, I started a Bible Study for teens. Everyone says to start with the book of John, so I wrote a 2-page study on Chapter 1. Verse one says, “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  I explained how Jesus is called the Word of God (Revelation 19:13). I traced Jesus all the way back to Genesis 1:3, explaining in great detail, how Jesus has always been, He was not created by God. Jesus is God, and Jesus was involved in the creation process. Simple, right? Wrong. Between verse 1 and verse 2, I lost them. Teens are easily distracted.

So, I basically said, “OK, put down your Bibles and just ask me questions." Wow, teens can ask some pretty tough questions when given a safe place and freedom from judgment. After sweating through my shirt, I basically went back to the basics. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that who ever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” And, because God is a miracle worker, He took my complicated attempt at sharing the simplicity of the Gospel, and spoke to their hearts, and they prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior.

However, after seeing the Wonder Woman movie, I realized that I should have just have let her explain it to them. One line was all it took.

“It’s not about what we deserve. It’s about what we believe. And I believe in love.”

You see, that's the question God is asking humanity, "What do you believe in?"

God says of Himself, "I am love. I’m the very definition of love. Not human love that is conditional on your actions but true love that is unconditional." God's love cannot be earned which is why we don't deserve it.

There is only one thing God asks of us.
Not to earn His love. He already loves us.
This ONE thing allows us to live with Him for eternity.
He asks us to BELIEVE.
Not just in Him, because many people claim to believe in some form of god. They call their gods by all sorts of names.
However, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Old and New Testament, the One True God (Isaiah 45:5), requires one thing for us to be saved from judgment and gain eternal life: belief in His Son, Jesus.

God is a holy God. He cannot be in the presence of sin. Our sin separates us from Him even though He loves us. That is why God sent His only Son to die on the cross. Our sin makes us deserving of judgment but Jesus took that judgment on Himself. Jesus took upon Himself what He DID NOT deserve – our punishment - to give us what we DO NOT deserve – victory over death and eternal life with Him in Heaven.

 1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)
He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

Psalm 103:10-13 (NLT)
He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

It’s all about WHO we believe in. Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?"  That is the question God wants us to answer. Our answer is what determines our eternal destiny - heaven or hell.

God’s Word says, “To those who receive Jesus, my Son, as their Savior, to those who believe in His Name, I give the right to become My children, children of God. And because you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God, and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you are saved.” John 1:12; Romans 10:9

That’s it! That’s all God desires from us. Belief in His Son.
God sacrificed His greatest treasure on the cross in order to make us His greatest treasure in heaven.
Forever called, Children of God, co-heirs with Christ.

So, Wonder Woman was right. It’s not what we deserve but what we believe that matters.

Wonder Woman learns that mankind has both good and evil in them – light and darkness. And even with all her supernatural abilities, she’s not able to defeat the darkness.
She says, “Inside each of them is light and dark and no superhero can defeat that. Only love can defeat that.”

That was such a profound statement. Each and every one of us has darkness in our heart. For all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) There is no superhero that can defeat the darkness, only love can bring light to the darkness. God is love (1 John 4:8) and God is Light (1 John 1:5) and God's love and light are manifested and glorified in Jesus. That is why Jesus called Himself the Light of the world (John 8:12) and said that anyone who followed Him would not walk in darkness. It’s only through the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that mankind is able to overcome darkness.

I'd like to end with a conversation I had with one of my teens. She was trying to make herself feel better by taking selfie after selfie, attempting to find her self-worth in her outward appearance:

Me: “What makes you special?”
Teen: “I look cute?”
Me: “No. You look cute, but that doesn’t make you special.”
Teen: “Because I’m me?”
Me: “God made you in His image, but what makes you special?”
Teen: With doubt in her eyes, she answered, “Because God loves me?”
Me: “YES! YES! YES! That’s it! You got it!”

I was rewarded with a huge smile that lit up her eyes.
I may not have a cool glowing rope or metal armbands that stop bullets, but I believe in LOVE! I believe God’s love conquers all. And that makes me a Wonder Woman in God’s eyes!

How about you? Are you willing to share God’s love with someone who’s lost in darkness? That’s all it takes to be a superhero for Jesus, a willing heart. He’ll supply the superpower!

Love,
Yolanda aka Wonder Woman in training