Last night as I sat in the presence of the Lord, I was reading Genesis 30. As I read and meditated, v 22 – 23 illuminated, it reads … Then God remembered [the prayers of] Rachel, and God thought of her and opened her womb [so that she would conceive]. 23 So she conceived and gave birth to a son; and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace and humiliation.” As I read this verse, there was a place in my heart that asked God the question, “Lord, why do we have to go through so much shame and disgrace to be remembered?” I whispered this question from my heart as I thought of how Rachel felt when she saw Leah getting the gift of a male child over and over. Rachel prayed, cried and was in agony, yet at the time, her womb stayed barren. Let me pause at that word “barren”, it is a word that I have used several times in my current season. I have quite honestly stated to my Father numerous times that “this season is barren and dry on all sides.” Like Rachel, I have felt the anguish of a soul in sorrow of going through a season of what seems to be unanswered prayers. A season where I am making the same requests known today, that I was making ten years ago. When an “open door” seems to be full of nothing but delays and roadblocks; where the genesis of a journey to a land I did not know, was activated on His word. In this land as a foreigner, it has not gone the way it was expected to, yet the Father whispers “stay right there”. In addition, spiritual warfare has seemed to tighten its grip, just at the point where I believe that the breakthrough is now, then I realize the journey continues. The place of barrenness, if one is not careful, will not only produce a hardened heart, but also bitterness, just like Rachel. Many believers who have been hardened and bitter, eventually become so numb, they haven't realized their heart posture have shifted.
Back to my question to the Lord, I went to bed without a perceived answer to the question until this morning. This morning, as a friend expressed her heart being a bit downcast, the story of Rachel came back to me. I said to her, Rachel’s first born was Joseph. Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son, yet most believers who walk with Christ can tell you more about Joseph than the ten other children that preceded him, combined. After all that Rachel endured, her first born would have risen to be the second in command in Egypt, a foreign land. Out of Joseph came two of the twelve tribes of Israel, Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph was favored by his father Jacob, more than all the other children he had before and if that wasn’t the icing on the cake… scripture says, “and the Lord was with Joseph”. Please read what I am saying with spiritual understanding, as I am not saying Jacob’s favoritism was right or fair to his other children, but what I am saying is, God’s favor can often times be perceived as unfair in human eyes, but that’s for another blog post.
Rachel died before she got to see Joseph rise to a place of prominence, but there existed the fruit of being remembered by God. The journey of perceived barrenness exists only a moment, but being remembered by God, is a fruit that lasts from generation to generation. It is the catalyst for greatness, a symbol of the faithfulness of God, an answered prayer, this favor is sometimes perceived as unfairness in the eyes of man, who does not know the cost of the oil; nor the amount of water it took out of you to pour on the seed of the Father’s word, so it yields fruit. To be remembered by God is divine favor in the most barren of places. So, if you are in a barren place like Rachel, stay there, cry out the Lord of Hosts, keep crying out to Him; and while you cry, praise Him along the way, do not try to help God in this place, just stand back and watch how HE will remember you. You will give birth to greatness in the receipt of the answer to your prayers. Until next time!
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