Every year, as the body of Christ, we take time to honor and reflect on motherhood and the the gift the Lord has given us as families. By honoring one member of the family, God does not rob from others. He carries plenty of honor for every member, as every member of his Body is needed. The spiritual gift of a father is often to plant seeds and create life with his words. Men invest their strength to soften the ground of the hearts God entrusted him with. The spiritual gift of a mother often is nurturing and protecting those God entrusted, even at the expense of their own body. Mothers carry a gift of compassion and patience to see the children rooted in love.
Mother’s often reflect Jesus when they nurture babies and give them the affection and nutrients from their own body. A child with a loving mother doesn’t just have head knowledge they are loved. Children have truly experienced the love from their mother and wouldn’t be alive and healthy without her. So when we honor a mother annually for her earthly gifts to the family, how much more should we honor for her spiritual gifts? What do those spiritual gifts look like? They often look like Jesus.
God empowered Jesus as head of the church (ekklesia) which is the assembly of the saints. Fathers can empower mother’s to be head of the home. What we often see is husbands who give a wife a house and she makes it a home. A godly father often is strategic with providing and nurturing his wife. A godly mother is often strategic to invest in her children and home. Whenever the temperature of her attitude in praise and gratitude to God rises so does the comfort level of everyone living in the home. A godly mother is the thermostat of her home.
There was a viral pandemic that hit me in the United States way before 2020. Recently defined as “Discontentment Disease” and any spiritual doctor would have diagnosed me with a bad case of it in my early twenties and early thirties. Discontentment drove me to ask the Lord to move away from discomfort or difficult people. “God, can I move on from this relationship, church, job, etc…?”. The answer I often heard was, “You are free to choose”. What if God desired self-control more than controlling me?
I took discontentment with me to every situation and it didn’t matter if I changed my outward circumstance, I still couldn’t find joy or contentment. Does that mean that God’s best answer for me was to leave difficult people? I believe God knew in my heart I was full of discontentment and He desired for me to learn from Him contentment. I wasn’t looking for His comfort as a friend, I was looking for His demand as a Father. Instead of demands, He gave me freedom to choose jobs, relationships, etc.. and so then as a young adult I may have chosen to change my outward circumstances more than changing my underwear (insert laugh track and drum roll here). I couldn’t be depended on to be faithful by other people and that was no joke!
What a revelation of grace did was bring an understanding of internal contentment in my thirties. Why did it take that long? The law offers bipolar performance (self-righteousness) for contentment. I didn’t discover to receive from Jesus Himself contentment until I hit the bottom of my self-righteousness. God was always offering contentment through Jesus but I wasn’t receiving by faith His righteousness. Jesus offered me righteousness and contentment in my home which radically impacted my home life, church, work, etc. Difficult circumstances repeated over the next decade and more but understanding my righteousness in Christ helped me to live from contentment not for contentment.
Changing jobs, relationships, churches can be healthy when being led by the Spirit. What is not healthy is a lifestyle of launching forward from discontentment instead of contentment. Look at Abraham content in the land he is living and God asks Him to move by faith. Look at the Apostle Paul who was content in all circumstances and after a few years of planting and making disciples, he was asked to move cities to do it again. Changing circumstances is not a problem, nor is obeying God to do so. Discontentment is a disease and how the world makes their decisions to change circumstances. Do you think Jesus was discontent in being a carpenter or was He 100 percent living present from contentment and moved by faith to obey the Father to launch into ministry?
Maybe you started your natural adult life out launching from discontentment from your child hood home. As a young adult, your discontentment was possibly from thinking you know more than your parents or worse….maybe you didn’t have parents to launch you forward from a place of contentment. However you got to today’s internal discontentment, it’s time to frame our past with God’s eyes of grace. How do we do that practically? I’m glad you asked…. Are you ready? Here are three practical ways I discovered to pray from a place of contentment and could be repeated in your quiet time with the Lord:
Prayer One:“Thank you for choosing me on the earth as such a time as this” Meditation: Did you know that you could have been born over the last recorded 5,000 plus years in any physical body or home and God chose your body and this timeline? It was no accident that He made you and contentment begins with accepting this. Think today’s generation is very dark and evil compared to a hundred years ago? God’s answer was to place you for such a time as this!
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:5 Esv
Prayer Two: “Thank you for choosing the earthly parents you gave me and the childhood I experienced, because of this I learned that ___________ (spend some thoughtful time here) and_____________ is important to you. Jesus chose you to join His family and to impact the people He entrusted you with His compassion. God only knows what kind of life pain you have been through with earthly family but He chose you to His heavenly family with a rich history of compassion and love. He will not waste an opportunity what the enemy tried to destroy in your life experience to turn it to good and His purpose!
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:27-28 Esv
Prayer Three: “If nothing today changes in my circumstance, you have given me more than I deserve with your Son! I will choose to rejoice in You now for Your faithfulnessin the middle of the storm.” Christians who wait to see circumstances change before changing their attitude are not walking by faith. Faith is the substance of things not seen. We can’t be discontent and full of praise at the same time.
I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.– Philippians 4:10-12 Esv
When I was four I identified with super man. He was fast and I thought at the time I was fast. Superman was invincible, I thought I was invincible. I thank God that my mother didn’t allow me to jump off our roof because I identified with superman. Just because I had the underoos (yes that was a thing in the 80s) didn’t mean I needed to put my identity as superman and my mom protected me from my false beliefs.
Someone may have told you to feel shame for having a desire that is not of the Lord. My question might be, “do you identify with your earthly desire or do you identify with your heavenly spirit?” Your new spirit happened when you put your faith in Jesus and became born-again. This is your true super hero identity with Christ. What are your super powers? Well, let’s take a look at some of the most important ones:
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.- 2 Timothy 1:7
Power sounds good, love sounds amazing, wait…….self-control? Certainly didn’t see that listed anywhere in the comic books growing up…..1st edition of Marvel Comics presents, “Self-control Man”. Mmmm, not sure that would be a top seller to four year old boys but for sure to a healthy christian woman looking for a future husband and father to her future children.
Let’s go back to shame, because a lot of men and women live in shame today and identify with fleshly desires more than they do comic book characters. Our desires are from two places according to the apostle Paul. From our flesh or from our Spirit. Your spirit is the real you and desires what Jesus desires because you are co-laborers with him. So when Jesus says, “I will build my church….” then we see in scriptures early believers having a desire to build His church. Why? Because they identified with Christ and the desires of their new spirit, not the desires of the flesh. You don’t have to live in shame for an earthly desire, everyone on earth has them and you are not dirty for having selfish desires. It is sin to identify with our earthly desires and live for them. For the believer we are learning to surrender our earthly desires and live for the desires of our King Jesus who has given us power, love, and self-control. Some of us may need spiritual parents who protect us from jumping off a roof and hurting ourselves because we were deceived and identified with shame and earthly desires.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.-Galatians 5:17
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