I must confess before all, I am gulity of this... I look at others, ( i just did this morning..) and I define them according to what they have or what they are doing... Here is a quote from my time in the word that the LORD used to convict my sinful heart..I was studying 1 Samuel 1 this morning..looking and meditating again on my attitude towards infertility...
".....By the way, it's interesting in this passage that these women are described just in terms of their childbearing. Peninnah had children, Hannah had none. Isn't it interesting that our culture tends to define us and describe us in those kinds of terms? "She's single, she's married; she has children, she has none; she's a beautiful woman, she's a little bit homely." Socio-economic status--"She comes from a wealthy family; her family doesn't have a lot." Job--"She's an executive; she's in management; she's got an entry-level job." How superficial are the descriptions and the definitions that we use in our culture to determine our worth and our value! The worst thing is how often we believe those superficial definitions and descriptions.
Ladies, it's not whether you're married or single, whether you have many children or no children in the will of God. Whether you have a great-paying job or no job at all, whether you're working at home or working out in the marketplace, it's that season of life for you to be doing that. Those aren't the things that define you. They may define you in the eyes of the culture, but in God's eyes what defines us is our heart.
It's our relationship with Him, our faith, our trust, our surrender to Him. It's the heart issues, and that's why we also need to be careful when we're defining others, that we don't put them in these little boxes and say, "That's who she is," but that we look deeper down into the heart......
We have to come to the place where we realize that God does not owe us an explanation. He is God. And if God wants to give you a husband, bless Him. If God wants to give you children, bless the Lord, and receive children as a gift from God. But if God withholds something that you think is good--and if God gave it, it would be good--but God for a time or permanently withholds it from you, you have to come to the place where you bow before sovereignty, and where you're willing to be content with mystery; to say, "I don't know why, I don't understand why, but I'll live with mystery, because I know that God knows."
Father, as much as it hurts, would you please continue to instill in me the biblical, God fearing, humility bringing response and attitude towards this season of life I am in..help me to embrace YOUR PLAN, YOUR WILL, YOUR TIMING..The truth is you don't give us everything we want..and this is good....Help me to strive to have a heart like Mary (Jesus mom) in which I can say ..."Behold, the bondslave of the LORD; may it be done to me according to your word."-Luke 1
Amen
".....By the way, it's interesting in this passage that these women are described just in terms of their childbearing. Peninnah had children, Hannah had none. Isn't it interesting that our culture tends to define us and describe us in those kinds of terms? "She's single, she's married; she has children, she has none; she's a beautiful woman, she's a little bit homely." Socio-economic status--"She comes from a wealthy family; her family doesn't have a lot." Job--"She's an executive; she's in management; she's got an entry-level job." How superficial are the descriptions and the definitions that we use in our culture to determine our worth and our value! The worst thing is how often we believe those superficial definitions and descriptions.
Ladies, it's not whether you're married or single, whether you have many children or no children in the will of God. Whether you have a great-paying job or no job at all, whether you're working at home or working out in the marketplace, it's that season of life for you to be doing that. Those aren't the things that define you. They may define you in the eyes of the culture, but in God's eyes what defines us is our heart.
It's our relationship with Him, our faith, our trust, our surrender to Him. It's the heart issues, and that's why we also need to be careful when we're defining others, that we don't put them in these little boxes and say, "That's who she is," but that we look deeper down into the heart......
We have to come to the place where we realize that God does not owe us an explanation. He is God. And if God wants to give you a husband, bless Him. If God wants to give you children, bless the Lord, and receive children as a gift from God. But if God withholds something that you think is good--and if God gave it, it would be good--but God for a time or permanently withholds it from you, you have to come to the place where you bow before sovereignty, and where you're willing to be content with mystery; to say, "I don't know why, I don't understand why, but I'll live with mystery, because I know that God knows."
Father, as much as it hurts, would you please continue to instill in me the biblical, God fearing, humility bringing response and attitude towards this season of life I am in..help me to embrace YOUR PLAN, YOUR WILL, YOUR TIMING..The truth is you don't give us everything we want..and this is good....Help me to strive to have a heart like Mary (Jesus mom) in which I can say ..."Behold, the bondslave of the LORD; may it be done to me according to your word."-Luke 1
Amen