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Today
we will wrap up our discussion of changes we can make in this new year
to help us in our struggle with infertility. Many people have gone back
to work and back to the day to day routines of life. Some have already
forgotten their new year’s resolutions and have fallen back into old
habits. Some never made an effort to break the destructive patterns in
the first place! Today, I encourage you to make a change in how you
view your infertility.
How
have you looked at your inability to conceive? There is no doubt it is
a devastating life crisis. For those who have never experienced the
crushing blow of an infertility diagnosis, delayed or denied pregnancy
may seem like little more than a passing inconvenience. However, for
those who live in infertility’s shadow every moment of every day, baby
hunger can be an all-consuming dread and heartache. Is it a
punishment? Is infertility God’s way of letting you know you have
wronged Him? Has God chosen to show His anger or disappointment in you
by closing your womb tighter than Fort Knox? How should you view your
infertility?
Go with me to the days of the Old Testament and take a seat next to our sister in waiting, Hannah. Let me tell you, she would be more than qualified to lead our support group this month! She cried buckets and buckets of tears as she begged God for a baby, yet no baby came. She watched others around her conceive. She even watched her husband’s other wife conceive babies for her own husband, and raise his children in her home. Can you imagine seeing a pregnant woman in your home, bearing children for your husband? As she wept in the temple, petitioning God for a pregnancy, she was accused of being drunk. Hannah understood all the frustrating aspects of infertility.
Here’s
the point: In 1 Samuel 1 where the story of Hannah is shared with us,
there are two separate occasions where we see the phrase “the LORD had
closed her womb”. There is no question as to why Hannah was not a
mother. The answer is clear: the Lord closed her womb! If the Lord
closes your womb, it is closed. Hannah’s infertility was not an
accident. God did it on purpose. The first time I really paid
attention to this phrase, I must admit, it made me mad! I wanted to
believe that Hannah was having a problem conceiving and that God rushed
in like a knight on a white stallion and saved the day. Wrong! God
closed her womb. He did it on purpose! I didn’t want to believe that God did this to her? Why? Because if God did this to her, maybe He did this to me, too.
But wait! Here’s the good part. If God did this on purpose, then Hannah’s infertility--and yours--must have a great purpose!
I don’t believe God allows something as life changing as infertility to
haphazardly interrupt the flow of someone’s life for absolutely no
reason. We know infertility doesn’t catch an omniscient God by
surprise. I believe infertility in your life has a holy purpose. God
will use it to reach you and to teach you things you never could have
learned outside of infertility’s classroom.
Even
before the conception and birth of Samuel, Hannah praised God through
her trials and dark days. Was that the lesson she learned? Was that
the purpose? Maybe we can ask her one day. Her story has strengthened
untold millions of infertile women through the centuries. That would be
a great purpose for what she went through. Who know what all God did
through her battle with infertility. Who knows what He’ll do with yours!
Change
your view of infertility. Don’t let the enemy convince you that it is
something that has happened to you because God is angry with you or that
He has forgotten you. Infertility has a purpose. God will use it in
ways you can never imagine today.
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