The sermon was actually geared towards mothers, and in light
of this coming Mother’s Day, I want to lift that up as the inspiration for this
message.
It has been an interesting 4 years or so. Every area of my life has been a “battle for the
seed” and it was not until I heard this message that it clicked for me. I am a mother to a 4 year-old, I have been
growing a business for just over 4 years, I have been investing in a ministry
for longer than that. Little by little I
have seen victory in these areas, in different seasons and at different
levels. But, for a very, very long time,
it all seemed like a whole lot of hard work, heartache, trials, gutting it out
and waiting. Very little progress, much
of what seemed like set-backs, losses to wholeness and relationship.
As I was listening to Bishop T.D. Jakes, and his reference
to the nurturing character of mothers, it dawned on me. Our greatest glory and our greatest pain is
imparted and inflicted through nurturing.
And, even if you are not a “mother” in the way that the world
understands it, all women are mothers.
We "mother." We take care of the
people in our lives. We fight for them. We bleed for them. We ache for wholeness in and with them. We wait with them. We carry their burdens. We hold their hands. We cry with them. The Bible refers to this quality of women as
Ezer Kenegdo. This is what I am talking
about. Eve was given to Adam to be his
Ezer Kenegdo. His “lifesaver alongside”
him. We are Ezers for all of mankind.
So, when I heard this again, I realized that the pain in my
life and the glory that I bear have been spend in the last handful of years
battling for the seeds. It is only now
that I am seeing what was built in me during this battling process. It is only now that I see that battling for the seeds was
worth it. And because of the degree of
battle it took to fight for these seeds, I am beyond thrilled to see what will
become of them. However long I have to
wait, I know that God will flood light and water upon all of it. He will weed, tend and grow. He will prune. He will grow in due season. The harvest will be glorious and I look
forward to the seasons of watching this extraordinary garden (Promised Land)
bloom!
Deuteronomy 11:10-12
The
land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which
you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a
vegetable garden. 11
But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land
of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the Lord your God
cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God
are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
