Fear No Fear

“When a woman is giving birth, she has pain, because her hour has come. But as soon as she delivers the child, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a child is born into the world” (John 16:21, MEV). When we give birth, we aren’t begging for it to happen. We are EXPERIENCING it happening. It is painful. It accurately can be described as anguish. There are emotional as well as physical components to it. Those helping with it and those observing it are OUTSIDE the experience. They are useful and in some cases vital, but they are external to the experience. We are told in various places in the Word about the need for us to TRAVAIL over something. To have an experience that can include anguish. Not physical pain, but an emotional pain where we are so empathetic to those we are dealing with, it is intense. When we pray for the unsaved, we are not begging God to save them. We’re travailing WITH Him OVER them. We are covering them with our prayers alongside God’s call to them. We are COOPERATING with the process by which people get saved. It can take YEARS, it can take DAYS, and it can take MOMENTS. It all depends on where in the process we join in. We don’t beg for action when we pray. We’re not banging on heaven’s gates. We’re at the Throne, hand in hand with Jesus, travailing as He did (John 11:33). We FEEL because we EMPATHIZE with GOD who is LOVE. We enter into God’s emotions toward people – true empathy – to see His will done in their lives (1 Timothy 2:4-6). It is like childbirth in that once it is over, we forget the ordeal for the JOY we experience WITH GOD as His Will comes to pass (Luke 15:7). He really does love us SO MUCH. It’s an honour and privilege to share that with Him. May we all get to share it many times throughout our lives and the lives of those we care about.