I’m so pregnant right now. I’m past taking chipper walks and decorating my nursery. I’m at the stage where I can’t sleep anymore, so I just cry while I watch reruns of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. I love being pregnant, and I was such a good soldier for so long. But there’s something about the difficulty of the last few weeks of pregnancy that primes and steels a woman for the intensity of labor and delivery. It makes us ready and willing to undergo any hardship just to be delivered from the close quarters of late pregnancy. That, and I’m tired of performing a trust fall every time I try to sit in a chair.
I love having babies. But when pregnancy gets hard, I have to remember the end goal—the baby! Somehow in the muddle of pregnancy and labor I forget all about the baby and focus on my heartburn and my contractions. I literally forget about the baby. This is true for so many things; when times get dark, it can be easy to forget the one, most important thing and instead get caught up in all the peripheral ephemera. But when it’s dark, we need the lamp of truth to lead us home.
God’s Word is that lamp shining in a dark place. His Word was delivered by prophets and then confirmed in the person of Jesus Christ. He inspires and fortifies our faith by the eyewitness accounts that again and again confirm what the prophets spoke and wrote.
Peter was one such eyewitness, a man who stood on the mount of transfiguration and heard the voice of God. I can’t even imagine. Somehow Peter managed to pry himself off the ground and listen to the words God spoke: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” (2 Peter 1:17). God is constantly bringing us the light of His Word to illuminate our confusion.
Don’t allow yourself to be confused or distracted. We do not hold to a cleverly devised myth, but to Truth itself. Christ came in space and time, walked before eyewitnesses who beheld “his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). We have the witness of the Word, strongly confirmed in history, bearing witness to Christ, our Light and Life (2 Peter 1:19).
We must hold tight to the things that are true. We know that Jesus is God’s son (Matthew 17:5). We know that He came to save us (Romans 6:23). And we know that His Word is a light in the darkness (2 Peter 1:19).
Today, even though I have both heartburn AND contractions, I am looking forward to holding my baby. Instead of letting ourselves get caught up in the passing peripherals, we must remember that Christ is the one important thing, and we have the truths of God’s Word to hold us steady when the rush and press of life threatens to tip us over.
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38 thoughts on "The Trustworthy Prophetic Word"
Amen.
Wow can I relate. I’m reading this 8 months pregnant, having just ate a tube of tums and feeling a bunch of Braxton Hicks. What a great reminder tho to remain focused on the main goal of Christ. Life is hard but the Lord is here and waiting for us to fix our eyes on him!
Amen! Thankful for the solid foundation and hope of God’s TRUE Word! Also, a timely devo for me as I am 39 weeks pregnant today and can totally relate! Heading in to be induced, which is not something I would have voted for, but God keeps reminding me the end goal is a healthy baby, not the success of my personal agenda.
Thank you so much for writing this amazing devotional today. I am going through a rough time at work and just being reminded that God is God has really helped me today. I pray the Lord would give me the right perspective today.
Amen
“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts”. His Word is the Light in my dark place! When I am unsure or fearful He is my Light, my hope, my confidence.
Amen! Help me have tunnel vision for God’s word and His plan! Everything else is temporary, but His word is forever!
Such a good devotion. It is SO easy to get caught up in the negative and all the madness that life brings. I am pregnant myself right now. Soon to enter into my second trimester. The last few months have been hard and I have done a lot of complaining.. and not near as much praising and showing God my thankfulness for the gift of life he’s given me and my family. It is nice to have a reminder to stop.. pause.. remember what the end goal is.. remember what’s more important.. and remember after suffering comes joy. There is always happiness we can find when we think of Jesus and the suffering He endured and the ultimate gift He has given us.. eternal life!
This devotion was so good today!! I have an 18th month old so I remember the last month was the hardest, but I got my baby in the end!!! We just have to stay in the light!! Yes hard situations will come but if we stand on who Jesus is and know that he got the victory and we do to, we can conquer anything
Kate–I am with you and I see you. While this will be my first child, this is my third pregnancy…I easily conceived twice but lost the first two near the end of the first trimester. I had follow up testing, and there was no medical reason and all the doctors encouraged me to try again. To my surprise I got pregnant again when I least expected it, this time at the peak of marathon training. I’m sure God laughed. Early on in this pregnancy, a friend of mine was praying over me and she said, ‘Praise God for this precious gift!’ When she said that it was a breakthrough moment for me. Even though I knew I would have some anxiety, I was determined that this pregnancy would not be totally dominated by fear for me. I wanted to chose gratitude. When she prayed that prayer, I realized exactly what you are saying. This pregnancy and this child are a gift from God. They are not earned and this child is not truly mine and never really will be. If I allow myself to be consumed by anxiety now, what will happen when the baby comes? I have no idea and no control over how long this child will live. My son is a gift from God, on loan to me and my husband for as long as He chooses. In that, I am able to have peace, knowing that the creator of the universe and the source of every good and perfect thing, including love, has this child in his hands. My prayer this pregnancy has been that, no matter what happens, that I will never allow my love for this child to eclipse my love of God. He Himself is the prize and He Himself is our peace. I long for Him, the giver, more than any gift, including a child. I am now just over 30 weeks pregnant. As the discomforts of pregnancy start to creep back in, it is good to remember what the goal of all of this is and to draw parallels with my own faith, keeping my eyes on the real prize–Christ himself.
This was so good for me to read today. Work has been stressful, and I need the reminder that it’s all peripheral. I need to focus on why I’m here, why God placed me in this role, and how I can honor and serve Him in my daily actions and attitudes. Lord, give me words to speak that honor You! Set a watch on my mouth, and may the fruit of my life honor and serve You.
Same! I’m praying this alongside yiu x
What an encouragement this had been to me today! Thankful for God’s truth.
God’s word illuminates our confusion. Amen.
Such a powerful devotion in many ways today. Thank you all for your insightful sharing. Chelsie, I have that same passage highlighted too and you’ve captured my thoughts perfectly. Thank you dear Sisters for being here each day.
My children love Jesus and they hold to the TRUTH, but they are hurting especially my daughter. They’ve been through a lot. My heart aches for them. They will have to do their own recovery some day. Please join me in prayer for my kids that their hearts will be healed. There’s so much more I want to say but I have to get to work now. God knows.
Praying for you and your children today!
“7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” Matthew 17:7&8
Loved and encouraged by this part! Sometimes when God speaks to us it can cause us to fear. Thankful God has sent His Son to us, to comfort us and can say to us “Rise, and have no fear” because He has conquered the greatest fear & enemy of this world.
Praying that my soul would trust in those words from Jesus and when I lift my eyes I only see Jesus, I would see no one else and no fear of what God has spoken and brought forth in my life.
What a great lesson. I’m going to print and share with my very pregnant clients.
I am currently 16 weeks pregnant, and have been looking for scriptures to help me through what I know will be some tough physical times ahead—not to mention scriptures to calm just the anxiety of knowing I’m pregnant, and I have no real control over the reality of this baby being safe and healthy in my and my husband’s arms in 24-ish weeks from now. This is our first, and there are so many who’ve not held their first. My heart aches hard for those mamas and daddies. I will find hope and peace in this light in the darkness. His Word IS peace. Maybe I don’t need just a few scriptures to “get me through,” but I just need to remember THE Scripture as a complete work and all the miracles it holds, and remember that the God who allowed this life within me is the One who holds our baby now and forever. This baby is not mine. It is His. Help me, Lord, to remember that and to surrender this baby to you daily, and for many, many days of my life.
“Peripheral ephemera!”: lovely word crafting!
Agreed!
Loved, “peripheral ephemera!” Read that dictionary!
Focus on the prophetic word.
Consider the wonderful truths of the prophets words.
Pay attention.
And may the light dawn on my soul and may Christ the Morning Star shine in my heart.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.
Peter was in the presence of Christ (shining like the sun, bright white lighted), Elijah, and Moses, at the Transfiguration and, his thought was, “It is good I’m along to put up a shelter for you three.” I wanted to laugh at first, because that would be my husband…what should I be doing or can I build for you? Then I realized that is too often me. As a person who has tried to, do-all and be-all for such a long time, I recognize the lack of times I am hands up and raised with no clock or to-do list, in-the-moment, present. Times when I just wait and soak in what God has for me.
Yet, at the voice of God they fell, terrified.
At the voice of God, we will all fall, one day.
So, what do I do to make today what it should be?
Did you get that?
In the matter of a breath
I am back to,
What should I be doing?
What can I build for You?
Instead of BEing with You
treasuring those thin moments
and using them to strengthen and fortify
for the battle we endure.
Those “present” times
without clock, agenda, or to-do lists,
simply, with God
worshiping,
listening,
praising,
hearing,
resting,
matter.
I thank you for the blessing of the gift to serve,
may I never substitute the service for
pure time with You.
Thank you for this!
❤️
I love this Angie! I’m going to put this in my journal. Thank you!
Love this ❤️
Amen!
Thanks for sharing this truth – so meaningful to me. Blessings to you xx
PAY ATTENTION!
HOLD TIGHT TO WHAT IS TRUE!
READ TRUTH EVERY DAY!
AMEN!
Thank you Mighty God for bolstering my faith and confirming the Truth! My heart aches as my adult daughter whose faith was once strong has been influenced by the “advanced and progressive” ideas of our current generation and my son-in-law who waffles back and forth between his faith in God and his belief in humanism. I have entrusted them into God’s hands, but it is so painful to see them confuse myths with the truth. Today’s reading really hit home for me. I will trust in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
So much in our life here is smoke and mirrors. We watch the news and wonder if the report is true or a fabrication. We scroll social media and wonder who really lives like that? Doubt rises along with its sister, skepticism. Faith, under attack by those who present themselves as more enlightened, can wobble. The future for people of faith looks like an uphill struggle to stand firm and to hold on. Has it not always been like this? Did Jesus not tell us it would be so? John 16:33. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (NASB) There is no peace to have in this world except in Him. Faith can indeed stand firm through the strongest gale as long as we hold firm to “these things I have spoken to you.” The foundation is only as firm as the Word is known and believed. That is why I read Truth. That is why I keep my eyes on Jesus. There is no smoke and mirrors in Him.
Amen amen!!!
Amen!
There is no peace to have in this world except in Him. Love this beautiful reminder!