This post is from Moms Take Ten episode 79, Parenting in Scripture–Spiritual Blessings and God’s Power, which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://sites.libsyn.com/403493/parenting-in-scripture-spiritual-blessings-and-gods-power
What words come to mind when you hear the word motherhood? What feelings rise up? What memories start to play? I think we can all agree that motherhood is a beautiful, challenging mixture. It is full of joy and hard, of excitement and mundane. There are milestones and unending miles. The days go quickly and they also go so slowly. There are things we celebrate and things we wish could change or would go away or never have happened. It is all the above and more.
Some days I feel I can tackle it all, and other days I feel as though my head is barely above water. The need for God’s strength and wisdom and hope and help has never been more apparent than in my mothering.
As I was in bed the other night, reading my Bible after a wearying day, I began the book of Ephesians. This is one of my favorite books. I read it so much when I was in college that the pages actually fell out of my Bible. And yet, the word of God is “alive and active” and still can speak something new to us no matter how many times we turn the pages.
Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus and after greeting them he says, reading from the NIV, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Note the tense—this has already happened. He has blessed us. With what? With every spiritual blessing. What are those? He tells us:
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.—God had a plan for us from the beginning and it was/is good.
In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.—He adopted us into his family as full heirs. We are forever connected to him. There is love and home and safety in this truth. There are rights and privileges beyond our comprehension.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.– We have not been left in our sinful state with no hope of change. He saved us, forgiving our sins, removing them far, far from us.
Not only that, which is amazing enough, but verse 13 adds
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.—We have the Holy Spirit living inside us, declaring that we are God’s, keeping us and growing us to the fullness of who God created us to be. The Holy Spirit is also described in the Bible as a comforter, helper and the fruits that he brings about in us are the ones that we desperately need as moms.
Paul then launches into his prayer for the Ephesians, which is beautiful. Each phrase is an entire sermon worth of content. Entering his prayer in verse 18 we read, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” It is the last phrase that stood out to me the other night: his incomparably great power for us who believe. He goes on to describe that power. “That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms”.
Resurrection power. Life giving power. Life transforming power. That is one of the spiritual blessings that he gives to those who believe.
This power brought Jesus out of darkness and into the light. This power empowered Jesus to stay in the pain of the cross for the purpose of redemption for all. This power assured Christ in the garden of his purpose and calling. This power worked through Jesus to heal, multiply, resurrect and teach during his ministry. This power transformed the son of God into a human being growing inside of a virgin woman.
This same power is what works in our hearts and minds so that we can become new creations in Christ.
This same power overcomes the weariness, the challenges, the disappointments, and the confusion of motherhood and enables us to live, and love and serve and coach and correct our children. There is nothing that we face that is too difficult for God to help us with. There is no prayer too large for God to answer. There is no situation with our child beyond God’s power. There is no day too long or too hard for God to carry us through. Motherhood is not too big for him. He created it. He placed us in it. He placed our children with us. He is with us in it and all of his power is too.
How amazing.
Let us end where Paul began, praising “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Was the day hard but you made it through? Praise Him.
Was the tantrum big and long but you helped your child through it? Praise Him.
Was a long-prayed for request answered? Praise Him.
Was the anger and impatience rushing out but you stopped and apologized? Praise Him.
Was there something you did that you are just now realizing you need to apologize for? Praise Him.
Was a new milestone reached or a victory won? Praise Him.
His power might look like a mountain moved or a seed growing. It might feel like we barely made it or we could run another mile. His power is in that one more breath, that one step taken, that one apology, that one load done, that one child comforted, that one son corrected, that one celebration, that one tear cried, that one heartbeat. For “in him we live and move and have our being” as Paul reminds us in Acts 17:28.
In the wonderful, challenging mixture that is motherhood, he has given us every spiritual blessing we need to do it well and he empowers us to live it out each and every day. Praise you, Lord.
Lyssa Stoyko 