"Barren No More"

"He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD." (Psalms 113:9)

 What happens to those that keep the faith through all adversity, is what is called fruit, and real fruit produces more fruit. That is what gets to take place in the lives of God's children when they get squeezed, they produce fruit by living out their faith in God's unfailing love and grace. The thing that we must always keep in mind is that grace comes before peace; before we can have real peace in our lives, we must take in God's grace; we must own it and cherish it, making it our own. When Paul prayed for deliverance from the thorn in his side, God said, "My grace is sufficient for you: for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) It is not just the fact that God is in control, it is the fact that He loves me, even more than I love myself, and He always knows what is best for me and my relationship with Him. That is really hard for us to comprehend sometimes, as we consider what God is doing and who it is that He wants to speak to, many times it is more about our relationship with Him; it is our hearts that He is longing to change and to mold, not so much those that are living around us. Before we can be an affective tool, we must be shaped and sharpened. Before we can be fruit that produces more fruit, we must die to ourselves. Grace is God giving us that which we do not deserve, that which we cannot earn, and that which makes us into the image of His Son. Before lives can be touched and changed through us, they need to see Jesus living in us. That is what makes the humble lifted up, when the humble represent Christ Jesus! It doesn't get much higher than that...

"As Isaiah said, "Rejoice, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into a joyful shout, you who have never been in labor! For the desolate woman now has more children than the mother who lives with her husband." And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit. But what do the Scriptures say about that? "Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman's son." So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman." (Galatians 4:27-31) NLT