Too Old to Have a Baby!

Too Old to Have a Baby!

This past Sunday, Jason Peters, our Sunday School teacher, was using Luke 1 and the story of Zacharias & Elizabeth in his lesson.  As he read the story, something jumped out at me!   Twice it says that Zacharias and his wife were aged—or advanced in years.  Gabriel tells him that his prayers have been heard and they will have a son.  

Now if you’re advanced in years (and I’m assuming past baby-producing age), don’t you at some point quit praying and asking for a baby?   I’m almost 64-years-old and I can promise that would NOT be a request I’d still be making!!   It wasn’t that God didn’t hear all those years ago.   And it wasn’t that He was saying, “No!”   Oh no—God heard!  It was the fact that He had many pieces to this puzzle to put in place.  Mary (Elizabeth’s cousin and the mother of Jesus) had to be born and grow up.  God used those years to season and teach Zacharias and Elizabeth.  They remained righteous and blameless even when it seemed their prayers went unanswered. God wanted mature, godly overcoming parents to train John the Baptist who would become the forerunner of Jesus.  

But when they were past their prime (or so they thought) and when their reproductive systems were dead...a miracle took place!   They had a baby!!!   And not just any baby—but the promised forerunner of the Messiah.  

This should give all of us such HOPE!!  What prayer has gone unanswered in your life?  Did He really say no?   Could it be that God is having to put many things in place?   Is He wanting to wait until everything seems dead so he can produce a living miracle?   

Don’t give up hope!   And in the meantime, worship God and live righteously before Him.

The Mirror

Have you read this verse and thought about it?  "As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects one person to another."  Proverbs 27:19

I can't tell you the number of times I've gotten aggravated with someone over their idiosyncrasies, habits, flesh, or sin. I might have even gone on a rampage or two because of them.  But God, in His faithfulness, has been quick to point out the same things in my own life.  It's humbling, to say the least.

And then there’s the passage in Matthew 7:1-5 which tells us not to judge or the same judgement will be given to us. The insinuation in this passage is that it’s made of the same substance.  We’re not to try to get the splinter out of someone’s eye until we’ve gotten the plank out of ours.  Again...the same substance.  

Yesterday, I was angry over a situation where I felt someone had undervalued me.  I stewed about it for 24 hours.  And then I went to God. I began journaling all of my thoughts about the situation.  God didn’t say a word, but caused me to remember this principle He had taught me many years ago...and I chose to put the comparison mirror up in front of me.  Ouch!!  The very things of which I was accusing another were true in my own life.  

It should be a red flag when we’re examining someone else’s life with a fine-toothed comb.  At that moment, we should hold up the mirror to our own hearts and allow the Spirit of God to examine us.  And anything that opposes God?   Uproot it!!  Ask for forgiveness.  And receive grace and extend that same grace to others.  

Spiritual Muscles

Spiritual Muscles
by Becky Dietz

Have you ever thought about how committed God is to making you strong?   As your father, he allows hard things in your life intentionally.  It isn’t to harm you.  Instead, it’s to build your spiritual muscles.  He is a good, good father and he stands ready to catch you at any point.  But as a good father, he knows that if your life is perfect, you’d probably never turn to him for help (or intimacy) and you would fall apart at the slightest problem.  

Romans 5:3-4 says, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”  Tribulation or trials or problems are the way we get to perseverance.  Perseverance means to endure, to have tenacity, backbone, dedication, steadfastness.  And those things produce character.  God delights in good character—having a good name is to be chosen over riches!   You’ve become purposeful and intent—and manage your life well—when you have character.  Character delivers hope.  You have hope because you’ve overcome!   Because you’ve endured and persevered, you know the steadfastness and faithfulness of your good, good father.  You know he won’t leave you.  As you press in to him during those trials, he presses in to strengthen your spiritual muscles!   His whole goal is to strengthen you through the process and for you to intimately know his good character.   

It’s our nature to strive and chafe when persecutions, trials, or tribulations come.  But remember you have a father who is intentional in building your spiritual muscles.  And he allows exercises to strengthen you.  Embrace him.  Turn to him.  He’ll help you if you ask.  He’s a good, good father who wants nothing more than to fill your heart with hope!  His plan is very good.