YOUR SPIRITUAL WOMB
Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:38
'Heart' in the Greek, reads 'womb'. "Out of his womb shall flow rivers of living water." A womb is a place where something is conceived and nourished, then birthed. Each of us has a spiritual womb from which we are called to birth something unique. It constitutes the story God wants to write with each of our lives.
For Hannah ~ God, in His sovereignty gave her a story of infertility, frustration, and humiliation in order to birth the prophet Samuel. If she had been able to conceive a child easily, like all else around her, she would not have been brought to the end of herself, ended up in the temple distraught, and promised to give God her child. God brought forth a Samuel after 500 lean years of silence.
For Joseph ~ God, in His sovereignty gave him a foundation of fatherly favor, but then mistreatment by his brothers and a life of slavery in Egypt, so that he could be ushered into His destiny; a high ruler in Egypt, used by God to save his people. If there had been no Egypt in his story, there would not have been an exodus for a race of people called Hebrews.
For the Samaritan women ~ God, in His sovereignty, touched her story of rejection and adultery with His grace so that she could know the reality of drinking from a well where she would never again be dependent on others to get her needs met.
My womb of my heart is also living out a story. I must stop fighting with God over the elements of pain in my life and see that God is sovereign over all of it. He allowed my story to be my story so that something unique could be birthed out of the travail. Sometimes God wants to birth a prophet, other times a ruler, and currently, a woman who can showcase Jesus through the uniqueness of her story to those around her. As her experience with Jesus flows out of her gut, effortlessly, with power, others stand in the flow and are either repelled or thirsty. For those who thirst, I become like the Samaritan woman who leads others to the well to drink. After meeting Jesus, she didn't take the time to write out a sermon. She ran into town, spilled her gut (womb), and living water came out like a gushing spring.
If I open my mouth to speak and nothing comes out, perhaps my storyline has tripped me up. God's sovereignty is in question. Perhaps I'm in a time the 'wilderness' period of my story and I've lost my way, lost my vision of a coming redemption. Never am I in a more critical place. I run to the Redeemer, pour out my heart about my tenuous faith, and tenaciously review the stories of my spiritual ancestors. I allow their spiritual grit to inspire me. I follow their footsteps to the temple, pour out my heart, cry for deliverance, and put all my hope in a sovereign God. There is nothing, if I am seeking Him and living in His truth, that will prevent me from Canaan. Today, I fight the giants of unbelief.
I believe in You. That means that I believe in the story You gave as one of hope, deliverance and joy. No matter what season, Your presence is there and working. Amen
