Sunday, June 19, 2016

Rejecting the Lord's Blessing?


What are some of the blessings the Lord rains down upon His children?

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Therefore, everything that we have good in our life is from the Lord: our spouses, our children, our homes, food, water, rain, friends, family, mountains, lakes, oceans, rivers, the ability to work and make money, gifts, talents, etc. He is our Heavenly Father and He blesses us in so many ways including the big ones such as eternal life, freedom from sin, the Law and condemnation, grace, mercy, patience, love, mercy, etc. 

One of the specific blessings He mentions in His Word are children. 

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. 
Psalm 127:3-5

All of the old-time preachers were adamantly opposed to the use of birth control as was the church. They understood the blessings of children and saw where birth control's roots were coming from - very wicked places. Are we like the frog in the pot that is slowly heating up so we don't notice when it is boiling? I have heard that the church is just ten years behind society. Is this another place where we have compromised with the world and its ways?

What other blessings from the Lord would you try to prevent and reject: food, money, clothing, houses, wealth, the ability to work, etc. I don't think anyone would reject any other blessings the Lord wants to pour down upon us except children. Therefore, I am not going to tell you whether or not birth control is sin because I honestly don't know, except for the ones that abort children. They are sinful. There are many who believe it is a sin to use any type of birth control and should allow the Lord to bless them with many children. There are many others who believe in using some type of birth control to space their children and have only so many. The final decision is between you and your husband. I encourage you to search the Scriptures and pray about making a decision on this important subject. Research the implementing of birth control in America and decide whether or not you believe God had a hand in it at all since it has led to promiscuous sex, numerous sexual diseases and abortions.  One thing I do know for sure is this world is in great need for godly offspring.

In closing, we were having a discussion about this in the chat room and one woman who is pregnant with her tenth baby wrote this to a woman who is struggling with the concept of not using birth control, "God uses struggles to shape our character. God has used the struggles of pregnancy and the demands of mothering a large crew to shape and mold me. It has changed my entire life and what I value. I think today so many of us want an 'easy' life free from pain, suffering, and inconvenience. I know where you're coming from. I spent many years there myself." As believers in the living God, we know we walk on a narrow road that leads to eternal life. We are asked to deny ourselves and be living sacrifices for Him. One way we can do this as women is to give our lives to the children the Lord may bless us with and training them in the His ways.

Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, 
if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
1 Timothy 2:15
Print Friendly and PDF
Posted by Always Learning at 6:00 AM
Labels:

Comments (7)

Loading... Logging you in...
Dashboard | Edit profile | Logout
  • Logged in as
0 Vote up Vote down
Anon M's avatar

Anon M · 458 weeks ago

Great post Lori. I wish there were more big families around. Christians are too quick to dismiss the idea. However, my husband and I have been discussing stopping having children after the birth of our 9th child.using NFP more than likely. We are struggling with the ones we have and my body and hormones are not handling this pregnancy well. We won't completely stop a potential pregnancy. But I think a break is in order. I think Christians at least need to at least be more open to the idea of having more children and use more natural methods. Eg: NFP. But they are too quick to reject the blessing.
0 Vote up Vote down
Lady Virtue's avatar

Lady Virtue · 458 weeks ago

I remember hearing a pastor who has 11 children with his wife say that God tempers pleasure with responsibility. I've remembered that since I heard it. Yes, the means by which babies are conceived is quite pleasurable, but it has the end result or consequence of producing new life, and providing for and nurturing that baby will grow his or her parents in Christlike virtues if they raise him/her in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Sadly, even many professing Christians think bringing up children is too hard, too time consuming, too expensive, too lengthy, etc., so they either limit them or have none at all. People are too caught up in pleasure for pleasure's sake. It's unwise to resist God's processes; He knows what He is doing.
0 Vote up Vote down
Guest's avatar

Guest · 457 weeks ago

As a Christian woman who has chosen to have a tubal ligation after 4 children, I don't believe using birth control is sinful at all (unless it is as Lori says and aborts a baby). I believe that God expects us to be responsible in many things (the way we live - what we do, watch, read, where we go, what we say, how we dress, what we spend our money on etc. the list goes on!) and limiting the number of children we have to a number we can manage is another area of responsibility God expects from us. That is not to say that there are families out there who manage quite fine with very large families. But for some families, my own included, a large family is impossible. My husband has a back injury which means he will never be able to work full-time again, (he has his own business which I help him manage), and he is also limited in what he is able to do with the children and around the house. Our finances are stretched to the absolute max with the 4 children we have, and we don't have any luxuries. We own our own home and have a modest but reliable car, but we can't stretch our few dollars any further. For us to continue having children when we can't afford them would be, in my opinion, not only highly irresponsible, but a burden on the taxpayer, as we would have to rely on welfare which I believe is not scriptural if done for any length of time.
Not all of us limit the size of our families for 'pleasure' reasons, but for genuine responsible reasons. I love children, I love being pregnant, and I would have loved to have more babies, but with my husband's health the way it is, having any more is out of the question.
1 reply · active 457 weeks ago
Loading...
+1 Vote up Vote down
pamelambc's avatar - Go to profile

pamelambc 33p · 457 weeks ago

I agree with the guest. God expects us to use wisdom. I see nothing wrong with barrier methods of birth control or those that don't induce abortion. Mamy men are not able to provide properly for dozens of children. One mother cannot properly supervise that many children either, and it is not the older children's responsibility. Sure, they can help out, but siblings should not have to raise their brothers and sisters.
0 Vote up Vote down
Jeanne's avatar

Jeanne · 457 weeks ago

I continue to be amazed at the acceptance of birth control by evangelicals--pastors and laymen alike. As a young married Christian woman, I did take birth control pills as did all of my other "good" Christian married women friends. I never thought to question it. Until I started reading my bible and a verse from Exodus leapt out at me--that God blessed the Israelites while enslaved in Egypt by increasing their numbers greatly. And that verse in Timothy that women will be saved by childbearing (I know it doesn't mean salvation but that women work out their salvation and are sanctified by childbearing). Then I started wondering why Christians were so accepting of birth control when the bible is clearly against it (most Christian pastors say that the bible is not so clear and that's why there is Christian liberty with regard to birth control). I feel like Satan has pulled a fast one over the church!! If you think about all the excuses people make about not having more children, many of them come from a place of worry and fear. I know that having more children can be extremely difficult for some women and families but I think that because we now have the option of contraception and for some, abortion, we've given people the option of making a sinful and faithless choice whereas these options were not available to the people of God in times past.

I know from my own family and many other Christian families I know personally that multiple children were aborted or prevented (via tubal ligation) all with the silent consent of pastors and in the case of tubal ligation, the recommendation of pastors ("Jesus is coming soon, so it's best not to have any more babies."). There is a lot of regret and heartbreak among Christian women I know over their decisions to abort or prevent more children.

Here's a good article I found that talks about how birth control gained acceptance among evangelicals.
http://familyinamerica.org/journals/fall-2010/pav...

I am not judging anyone for their decisions because I know we are all frail and can give into worry but I know that my own family would have experienced much more joy and the provision of God if my parents welcomed more children into the family. The reasons for abortion in my family were financial even though we were upper middle class. Of course we had enough but my parents were worried about college educations! How much resources is enough? With God there is always enough.
1 reply · active 457 weeks ago
0 Vote up Vote down
Guest's avatar

Guest · 457 weeks ago

If you know of pastors who are recommending women to have tubal ligations, that is very, very sad and I would be questioning their teachings. I chose to have one for reasons I outlined above (and it was not a decision that we made lightly, but spent hours and hours agonizing and praying over it) but NOT ONCE was it "recommended" to me (or anyone else that I know of) by anyone in our church. In my opinion, for anyone to be recommending someone limit the size of their family, for any reason, is not scriptural. Whether or not to have a tubal ligation is between the woman, her husband, and God, and not anyone else.
0 Vote up Vote down
Gillian's avatar - Go to profile

Gillian · 457 weeks ago

Thank you for this post.
It is hard for me to hold fast to my convictions of accepting all of God's blessings - for instance, children! - when all my Christian friends around me have stopped having babies. I thought I found a dear friend with like minded convictions as she just had her 7th baby, but alas, to my dismay, she told me she had a tubal ligation. I do not have many friends with the same convictions, sadly. We have seven children right now and would welcome more, if the Lord sees fit. It is a constant shapening of my character to raise these precious little ones. I see my flaws all more clearly and rely more on God's grace and strength to fulfill my tasks.
Thank you for your blog. As always - very encouraging and well written. Blessings to you!

Post a new comment

Comments by

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)