THERE’S MORE TO IT

“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing,
if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety”
(1 Timothy 2:15).

I love the truth of the above Scripture. The word “saved” in the Greek is sozo--a wonderful word which means “to be delivered, preserved, protected, healed, and made whole.” When Jesus healed someone and stated the words “Thy faith had made thee whole,” He used the word sozo.

Do you want to be preserved? Do you want to be whole--physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? God’s Word tells us that women will experience these blessings through child bearing--giving birth to children, nursing them at the breast, and mothering and training them. This is God’s plan for a mother, although many today think they have better ideas than God.

However, although I love to share about the wonderful blessings God provides for mothers as they embrace childbearing, I have to confess I have not been faithful to share about the rest of the Scripture. God convicted me about this recently and therefore I share it with you today.

The Scripture says we receive these blessings “if we continue in . . . “

1. Faith

The word faith is pistos and reveals our total reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation from sin. However, our faith is more than being saved from sin. This is just the beginning. How we start is how we continue. We can’t please God without faith. We are not only saved by faith, but live every part of our life by faith. We are purified and sanctified by faith, justified by faith, healed by faith, and receive our righteousness by faith. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. We overcome by faith. And get this, dear ladies, we mother by faith!

We can’t effectively mother any other way. We walk in faith to conceive and carry a child in our womb--it is all the working of God. It takes faith to go through the birth of a child--we are totally cast upon God to bring our baby safely forth into this world. We nurture our little babies by faith and continue to walk by faith as we train our children to adulthood. We walk in faith as we trust God to provide. It is a faith walk all the way. We cannot do any of it in our own strength. We are totally reliant upon God, every moment of every day.

So often we try to do it in our own strength. We try to provide financially in our own strength. Forget trying. Everything to do with mothering is a faith venture.

2. Love

The word is agape. It is the highest type of the four kinds of love we understand in the Greek language. It is a revelation of God’s sacrificial love. We can only show forth this kind of love because of Christ’s love within us (Romans 5:5). This is love that loves even when we are not loved back. We love no matter what the response.

We may have thought this Scripture would use the word storge which is the love of a parent to a child, an affectionate love. This is an important part of parenting, but the love of a mother goes even beyond natural love. As children grow up they can hurt us, reject us, and even rebel. A mother keeps on forgiving and loving. Read Psalm 78:40 and Isaiah 63:10.

3. Holiness

Many mothers seek to be fashionable mothers, trendy mothers, career mothers, or fitting in with the world mothers, but we have a great need for holy mothers. To be la holy mother is not so popular, but holy mothers are powerful mothers. Without holy mothers we will not have holy children. Without holy children and holy homes we cannot have holy churches. And without holy churches we definitely will not have a holy nation.

If we want to be a godly mother, we will have to be a holy mother, because God is Holy.

Hebrews 12:14 tells us that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. We must seek to walk in holiness in our personal life. We must pray that our children will walk in holiness. We must seek to build a holy home, guarding against all impurity and uncleanness. A holy mother will not allow unholy movies, unholy books, or unholy habits in her home.

4. Self Control

The word “sobriety” in the King James Version means “self control, soundness of mind, soberness, sanity, and prudence.” Others translations use the words, “discretion, good judgment, and modesty.” As mothers we are not “tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14 HCSB). We are not victims to the brainwashing of our humanistic society which woos us to fit in with the behavior of this world system. Instead, we daily renew our minds in God’s Word and stand fast in the truth.

Children need stable mothers, self controlled mothers, and mothers with good judgment.

Blessings from Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, Please save me from trying to mother in my own strength. Lead me into your wondrous ways. I want to be a faith mother, a loving mother, a holy mother, and a self controlled mother. I know I can’t do this in my own flesh. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I will resist giving into the flesh and instead yield to your Spirit who lives within me. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I want to be a holy mother in this unholy world.

FURTHER INFORMATION:
Check out these links for further reading about being preserved through motherhood:
http://tinyurl.com/PreservedThroughMotherhood
http://bit.ly/PreservationTestimonies
http://tinyurl.com/QuintessentiallyFeminine
http://tinyurl.com/FullFemale
http://tinyurl.com/SucklingMother

Scriptures about Jesus making people whole:
Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 7:50; 8:36, 48, 50; 17:19; and 18:42.

Scriptures to look up about living by faith:
We are saved by faith: Ephesians 2:8, 9 and Hebrews 10:39.
We cannot please God without faith: Hebrews 11:6.
Christ dwells in our hearts by faith: Ephesians 3:17.
We live by faith: Hebrews 10:38 and chapter 11.
We are purified and sanctified by faith: Acts 15:9 and 26:18.
We are justified by faith: Romans 3:26; 5:1; 8:3, 28; and Galatians 2:16; 3:24.
We receive righteousness by faith: Romans 4:5, 11, 13; 9:30; 10:6; 1 Corinthians 1:28; Galatians 5:5; and Philippians 3:9.
We are healed by faith: Matthew 8:10; 9:2, 22, 29; 15:28; Mark 2:5; 5:34; 10:52; Luke 5:20; 7:9, 50; 8:48; 17:19; 18:42 and Acts 3:16.
We overcome the world by faith: 1 John 4:4, 5.

We are to build up ourselves in the faith: Jude 1:20.
We are to put on the breastplate of faith: 1 Thessalonians 1:3.
We are to have confidence in our faith in Christ: Ephesians 3:12.
We are to contend for the faith: Jude 1:3.
We are to continue in the faith: Acts 14:22 and Colossians 1:23.
We are to be established in the faith: Acts 16:5 and Colossians 2:7.
We are to fight the good fight of faith: 1 Timothy 6:12.
We are to be full of faith: Acts 6:5, 8 and Hebrews 10:22.
We are to hear by faith: Galatians 3:5.
We are to be joyful in faith: Philippians 1:25.
We are to keep the faith: 2 Timothy 4:7.
We are to mother in faith: 1 Timothy 2:15.
We are to nourish up ourselves in the words of faith: 1 Timothy 4:6.
We are to be obedient to the faith: Acts 6:7 and Romans 1:5.
We are to have patience in faith: Revelation 13:10 and 14:12.
We are to pray in faith: James 5:15.
We are to stand fast in the faith: 1 Corinthians 16:13.
We are to be steadfast in the faith: 1 Peter 5:9.
We are to be sound in faith: Titus 1:13.
We are to be strong in faith: Romans 4:20
We are to have unity of faith: Ephesians 4:13

We must never . . .
Depart from the faith: 1 Timothy 4:1.
Deny the faith: 1 Timothy 5:8.
Err from the faith: 1 Timothy 6:10.
Overthrow the faith of others: 2 Timothy 2: 18.