If you’re new to this story, I’ve been sharing our testimony of conceiving a 2nd child after more than 8 years of what doctors call Secondary Infertility. You can follow these links to read PART 1, PART 2, and PART 3.
In my last post, I talked about the importance of standing on the Word to receive the promises of God we find in Scripture. Today, I want to share with you all of the Scriptures and insights from the Word I personally stood on. Before I get to those specific Scriptures, I felt it was really important to share one of the keys the Lord showed me about standing on His Word.
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11
It was at the end of 2016 when the Lord really prompted me to compile all the Scriptures I was standing on to believe for our second child. A few months later, as I was prepping and planting my flower beds for the spring season, the Lord began to talk to me more about how His Word, and the Scriptures I had been meditating on, take root in my heart. He really emphasized to me how much of the growth that happens in flowers and plants remains under the surface until we see the physical fruit growing above ground. What’s happening underground is real and absolutely crucial to the success of the flowers once they poke through the earth. In fact, without those established roots, the flower can’t receive the stability, strength, and nutrition it needs to survive. I started to think about how often we are tempted to only accept instant, complete, physical manifestation that we can see, touch and feel to believe His Word and promises are working in our lives. Sometimes we get so focused on seeing the fruit, that we miss the fact that God is causing our roots to grow deep. He wants us to be rooted and grounded in His love so that we can freely and fully receive ALL that He’s giving us, which is so much more than an instant manifestation of fruit. So many times if we just got the fruit, in no time, it would fall victim to the elements because we didn’t have the roots to hold onto it. The verse above in Isaiah ASSURES us that, even when we can’t see what’s happening under the surface, we can KNOW that His Word is working and producing because His Word NEVER returns to Him void— it ALWAYS accomplishes what He sent it to do. This was so freeing to me. No longer could I be disappointed with a negative pregnancy test again. That was fruit I knew would eventually manifest as my roots continued to grow deep in Him. What’s more, the longer and stronger my roots grew, the better the harvest that I was going to reap.
The Lord gave me so much peace and patience as I waited for the full manifestation of what I had been believing for. I got to the point pretty early on where I stopped questioning the waiting. A few months after I knew I was expecting baby #2 and I knew I wanted to share our testimony, I asked the Lord how I could explain the waiting to others, because I knew that would likely be a question many people would have. If we fully believed the Lord desired for us to have more children and that He was providing everything we needed, why did it take more than 8 years? He told me it took longer because I was willing to wait for everything He had for me. If it was just a baby I was after, I could have had it much earlier. However, I approached it, from the beginning, wanting EVERYTHING He had for me and it took longer to manifest the full harvest of everything He wanted to accomplish in my life in order for patience to have its full and perfect work, lacking nothing (James 1:2-8). If you find yourself in a position of waiting, don’t despise the process and the good gifts the Lord is perfecting in you during this time. It’s not our job to understand the end from the beginning— our part is to trust and rest in Him one day at a time, one step at a time. There is a Biblical precedent for the enemy causing a delay for our answer to prayer. Even so, we can rest confidently knowing that He will work everything for our good (Romans 8:28). We can trust the Holy Spirit knows our future and will lead us and guide us into all truth (John 16:13). I know I have shared this verse in nearly every post in this series, but it’s so applicable here again: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) I was in it for the long haul and I wanted everything He had for me in this season— I wanted ALL that He wanted to add to me (Matthew 6:33). We will find ourselves in a place of peaceful, joyful confident expectation when we know that the Lord is working on our behalf even when we don’t see instant results. If you’re struggling to get to that place of quiet, confident expectation in Him, spend time getting to know the immensity of His love for you as revealed in Jesus and the amazing, free gift of His very own righteousness he has lavishly bestowed upon us.