The Lord has made Romans 8:22-28 known to me on a couple of occasions.
First, it was a little over a year ago when everyone and their sister were getting pregnant. If you know anything about me, you know that I've always desired to be a mother. I feel like it's part of the calling God has placed on my life. I've been ready since I was a kid and for Travis and me to wait as long as we did to finally have a child took a lot of patience and trusting in God. I was reassured of God's timing and his faithfulness when I stumbled upon this passage and more aptly this verse:
"But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently." Romans 8:25 (NLT)
Then a few months ago the Lord brought this passage back to me.
I love God's Word because it's always relevant to what you're going through. You could've read a certain passage 10 times throughout a given year and each time it says something different, something that applies to what you're going through at that specific time.
When I stumbled upon this passage again I was beginning to feel the affects of pregnancy, and I was also thinking a lot about the type of birth I was going to have. Do I want to have pain meds that allow me to feel nothing, and not know what my body is going through or do I want to go natural and feel every contraction, every pain--a pain so powerful some women compare it to completing a marathon? Usually I would say
give me the drugs!! But something inside of me was telling me
I can do this without meds, I can get through this pain! And I think that something was the Holy Spirit.
Now this passage isn't directly about pregnancy but instead compares our life with Christ here on earth longing for that day in Heaven to a woman who is pregnant, giving birth, and in a whole LOTTA pain. Take a look see (I've added the italicized in parenthesis):
"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us (
Juice Drop). The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance (
I'm yearning for a full delivery!). That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us (
I'm enlarged and haven't seen Juice Drop just yet). But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy (
pregnancy takes a while, just as labor does, but in the end it's all worth it!). Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along (
when labor gets too intense or I get too tired, God is right there with me, experiencing the pain too). If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in us and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans (
oh, I'll be groaning all right!). He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God (
He knows my body better than I do, and He knows I can do this!). That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good (
and when I see my daughter's face, all will be GOOD!)." Romans 8:22-28 (The Message)
Wow! What an amazing passage not just for me going through labor but for that yearning and desire to be with our Heavenly Father. How great the Father's love for us that we will go through whatever it takes to be with Him, and all along He is there right beside us going through the same pain and anguish. We find joy in enduring these "birth pangs" because we know in the end it is all worth it, our joy will be complete, and we will experience no more pain!
I know it sounds crazy, to experience pain for the joy that comes in the end. But I look forward to feeling that pain, to that feeling where I know I'm alive, so that in the end I will be pain-free and will know joy like I've never known before!
**Disclaimer: I realize circumstances arise when pain meds and other medical procedures are necessary for the mother and for the baby. I do not believe this makes the mother less of a mother, less of a woman, or less of a child of God. If you choose or it's deemed necessary to have medical intervention, then that's great. My goal is to have a natural birth and whatever happens in the labor and delivery room happens, and I'm trusting God to get me through it, whether it's naturally or with medical intervention.
