Hello Everyone,
I pray that you are all well today. I am excited to announce that we are in over 11 countries with over 2500 readers!!!! Hallelujah!!! God is awesome!!! His word is glorious!!! God has blessed us to see another day, another week, another month, and another year. He has extended our earthly time one more year, so lets make the best of it!
My husband and I were recently discussing the importance of maximizing our time here on Earth. He had attended a funeral which caused him to reflect. We both agreed that our sole purpose on this Earth is for God's glory and that all of the rest of it is fleshly pleasure (Genesis 1:27). We are to be fighting the war on sin, drawing soles to Christ, and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 12:1-2). That is our soul purpose for His glory. We were made in His image for His glory, not our own. I created you to display My glory by lifting up the best in each other (Wolgemuth 2013). I personally expressed my concern for when I stand before God. I do not want to hear God say, "I gave you so much time, what were you doing?"
What did Eve do with her time here on Earth? We have seen Eve as a woman, the first female, as a wife, the first firtlady, and as a sinner, succumbing to her flesh. Now we will discuss Eve as a mother. The first mother ever.
Resource
Genesis 3:16a
16 To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children;
Genesis 4:1--2
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord." 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Genesis 4:25a
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth,
Genesis 5:4
4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.
mother - (n) a woman who has given birth to a child; to make children and nurture them (v) care for like a mother; to nurture
Lesson
As I searched for the definition of mother when preparing for this week's post, there were so many variations. The scientific definition of mother describe it as a slimy stringy substance that works as a base for vinegar. Vinegar is very bitter. To find that the root of such a bitter substance is "mother", was disturbing to me. However, it lodged for deeper discussion with the Lord upon preparation for today. The stringy slimy substance called mother that is the base of such a sour liquid as vinegar is just a metaphor for the sourness of the sin that plagued the beautiful experience of childbirth.
When I was pregnant, I was determined to give birth naturally; I wanted the full experience. Additionally, I did not want my baby to enter the world filled with medication. I wanted my baby's first breath to be pure. I organized my birth plan to reflect those thoughts. However, God had another plan (Jeremiah 29:11). I am asthmatic, so my oxygen levels began to drop. They then placed me on oxygen and told me that I needed medication to regulate my contractions and to put my body in a more relaxed state. So my son was born and we both were a little medicated at the time of the birth.
Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters (Nelson 1997). Can you picture Eve giving birth to all those children without any of the comforts today? There were no physical doctors, nurses, hospitals, comfortable beds, etc. Just Adam and Eve. No one else. The woman's joy in conceiving and bearing children will be saddened by the pain of it (Allen, House, & Radmacher 1999). She was the first mother that bore hardship for her children. She endured that first experience on our behalf.
Additionally, Eve did not have all these reference books on mothering that we have to refer today. God gave them His own presence and fellowship (Mears 1999). Eve relied on her husband and most importantly, her relationship with God to mother her children.
Though they were sinners, nay, though they felt the humiliation and sorrow of penitents, they did not write themselves comfortless, having the promise of a Savior to support themselves with (Nelson 1997). We have removed ourselves so far from the God that will not leave us comfortless, even in mothering. It is through the grace of God that Eve bore these children in sorrow and mothered them to bore many nations themselves (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Our weakness highlights God's glory even more!
We do not have to focus on the slimy stringy stuff that serves as a base for a more sour substance. We can concentrate on the glory of God and how we are made perfect in Him (1 John 4:17). There is peace, hope, and expectancy in a perfect God (Savage 2013).
So Eve endured, so can we. So Eve was redeemed, so are we. So Eve is made perfect in Christ Jesus, SO ARE WE!!!
Application
I pray that you have gleaned from this lesson, even if you have not given birth yet. The point is, we have been saved by His grace.
This week we will reflect on own personal journeys in Christ. Where and when has His grace sustained you?
Let's also practice extending grace as God has extended grace to us.
Have a blessed week!
Be blessed,
T. Carter
All scripture notations were extracted from New King James Version of the Bible. YouVersion (2013).
Allen, Ronald B., House, H. Wayne, & Radmacher, Earl (1999). The Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Thomas Nelson Publishing. Nashville, Tennessee.
Mears, Henrietta (1999). What the Bibles is All About. Regal Publishing House. Ventura, California
M-W.com (2013). Merriam-Webster Dictionary Web Version. Retrieved from App Store
Nelson, Thomas (1997). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible. Thomas Nelson Publishing. Nashville, Tennessee.
Savage, Jill ( 2013). No More Perfect Moms. Moody Publishing. Chicago, Illinois
Wolgemuth, Barbara & Wolgemuth, Robert (2013). Couples of the Bible. Zondervan Publishing. Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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