1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: Life audio. 2 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 2: You're listening to everyday prayers with Million Praying Moms, helping 3 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,280 Speaker 2: you pray God's word for your family in the areas 4 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 2: you need at most. I'm your host, Nicolette Bell. Here 5 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 2: we believe prayer isn't a last resort. It's our first 6 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 2: and best response in parenting, and every day we come 7 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 2: together to partner with God for the hearts of our children. 8 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:37,440 Speaker 2: Today's devotion is written and read by Schelleene Roberts, author 9 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:39,959 Speaker 2: of When Mothering Is Hard and No One Sees. Our 10 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 2: summer book Club pick. Each Monday, Selleene will be sharing 11 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 2: a devotional excerpt and prayer from her book, and I 12 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 2: will be hosting several Friday interviews with her throughout the summer. 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 2: You can grab your copy of the book and find 14 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 2: a reading guide to read along on our website, Millionprayingmoms 15 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 2: dot com. Use code book Club twenty for twenty percent 16 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:02,520 Speaker 2: off your order from our Mom's shop. We will email 17 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 2: out application questions and a short teaching video from Sheiline 18 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 2: each week to go along with our reading. I pray 19 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 2: that reading this book together will help you to feel 20 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:14,320 Speaker 2: seen by God in your motherhood this summer. After a 21 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 2: quick word from our sponsors. We'll pray together for our children. 22 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: A prayer for the broken and the redeemed Romans Fibe. Eight. 23 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: But God demonstrates his own love for USh Miss while 24 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,679 Speaker 1: we were still sinners. Christ died for us. I'll be 25 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: honest with you the chapters in my book when motherin 26 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:34,919 Speaker 1: is our at a nunancies that I'd really rather skip, 27 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: not because the truth isn't good, but because it requires 28 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: us to first go somewhere I'm comfortable, because before we 29 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,200 Speaker 1: can get to the good news of redemption, we have 30 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 1: to understand that bad news have brokenness, and brokenness is messy. 31 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: It's hard, and the last thing most of us want 32 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:52,080 Speaker 1: to do in the middle of the laundry and the 33 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:54,960 Speaker 1: lunches and the noise is sit down and take a long, 34 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: honest to look at our own pain. But here's what 35 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: I've come to understand. We can't fully appreciate the sacred 36 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,520 Speaker 1: gift of redemption until we've honestly looked at our need 37 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: for it. So let's go back to the garden again, 38 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:11,519 Speaker 1: to that place we started last week, After the serpents lie, 39 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: after the fruit, after the hiding and the shame, the 40 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: Lord speaks directly to Eve, and he tells her that 41 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: she will bring forth children in pain, And thousands of 42 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,079 Speaker 1: years later, every single one of her daughters is still 43 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: living under the weight of that consequence. Whether your labor 44 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,640 Speaker 1: lasted two hours or twenty seven, whether you labored naturally 45 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: or with every medical intervention available, whether your children came 46 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: to you through your body or through the process of adoption. 47 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: Motherhood opens us all up through a process of breaking. 48 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: It is simply part of giving life and not pain 49 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: is the very real result of the fall. Even today, 50 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: it's a reminder in the most visceral and undeniable way 51 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: that we are broken people living in a broken world, 52 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: desperately in need of a savior. But motherhood pain doesn't 53 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: stop at childbirth. There's a deeper, more devastating bank that 54 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,400 Speaker 1: some of you carry, the pain of loss, the heartache 55 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,959 Speaker 1: of a wayward child, the despondency of the diagnosis, the 56 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: void of empty arms, or the sorrow of a prodigal 57 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:14,320 Speaker 1: who hasn't yet come home. If that is your story, 58 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:17,079 Speaker 1: I want to pause here and tell you I am 59 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: so very sorry. The enemy of your soul is real, 60 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: and he has been waging warrn your daughter since the garden. 61 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,639 Speaker 1: John ten ten warns us plainly that he comes only 62 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: to steal, and kill and destroy, and he is still 63 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: at it today. Your pain is not imagined, your heart 64 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:36,040 Speaker 1: ache is not overblown. You are in a tangible battle, 65 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: and the losses are real. And yet, and yet this 66 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: is not the end of the story, because the same 67 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: God who banished Fadam and Eve from the garden did 68 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: something in breathtaking even in that moment of exile. He 69 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: made them garments of skin to cover their nakedness, as 70 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: sacrifice to clothe his beloved. That small tender act in 71 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: Genesis three was a foreshadow of what was coming, And 72 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 1: thousands of years later, on a hill called Colcotha, the 73 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: ultimate sacrifice would reach its culmination, when the promised seed 74 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: of the woman, the one foretold of all the way 75 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,720 Speaker 1: back in Genesis three, would hang upon a Roman cross, 76 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: and they're the full weight of every sin. And then 77 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: on the third day, that sacrificial lamb would rise, the 78 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 1: stone would roll away, the guards would fall like dead men, 79 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,080 Speaker 1: and the angel's words would ring out over the trembling, 80 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 1: weeping women who had come to mourn. He is not here. 81 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: He has risen, just as he said Matthew twenty eighty 82 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: six that resurrection is not just a fact of history, 83 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,800 Speaker 1: as staggering as that fact alone is, but more than that, 84 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: it's the cornerstone upon which all of our hope sits. 85 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: Christ defeated death. The curse has been broken and fallen, banished, 86 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: garden exiled. People like you and me are no longer 87 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,360 Speaker 1: without a way home. C. S. Lewis once wrote that 88 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:01,920 Speaker 1: God whispers to us and our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, 89 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: but shouts in our pains. Friend, if the hardness of 90 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,040 Speaker 1: your motherhood has felt like shouting lightly, maybe God is 91 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: trying to get your attention, not to shame you, but 92 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: to draw you to himself. Because it is from that 93 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: place of brokenness, where our self reliance crumbles and our 94 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:20,520 Speaker 1: wrong strength gives out, that we are most ready to 95 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,840 Speaker 1: receive the grace the only He can give. Our brokenness 96 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:26,720 Speaker 1: is not the end, it is the very doorway through 97 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: which we walk into the arms of our rescuer. Romans 98 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:32,919 Speaker 1: Vibate tells us, But God demonstrates his own love for 99 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,479 Speaker 1: us in this. While we were still sinners. Christ died 100 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: for us, not after we cleaned ourselves up, not after 101 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: we got our act together, not after we became mothers 102 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: or better wives or better women. While we were still sinners, 103 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:51,599 Speaker 1: while we were still broken, while we were still hiding 104 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,920 Speaker 1: in the garden, covered in shame. He came for us. Then. 105 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: That is the miracle, That is the grace that changes everything, including, 106 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:05,360 Speaker 1: perhaps most especially how our everyday motherhood. Let's pray, Lord, 107 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: we come to you broken. We come to you weary 108 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: from the weight of the smothering rule and the pain 109 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: of living in the fallen world. Remind us today that 110 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: our brokenness needa to feed us, rather use it to 111 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,159 Speaker 1: draw us to you. Thank you for the cross, Thank 112 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:22,600 Speaker 1: you the while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 113 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: Let the miracle of the empty tomb be the foundation 114 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: of our motherhood today. Where we are depleted, phyllis, where 115 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 1: we are afraid, study us, where we are cleaving, hold us, 116 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,680 Speaker 1: and let the resurrection power Jesus Christ transform our ordinary, broken, 117 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,280 Speaker 1: beautiful motherhood into something eternal. 118 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 2: And Jesus saying, Amen, friend, it is not too late 119 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 2: to join us for our summer book club featuring the 120 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:50,720 Speaker 2: book When Mothering is Hard and no one sees by 121 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:53,760 Speaker 2: my friend Seline Roberts, It's happening now through the end 122 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,560 Speaker 2: of July, and we want you to join us. Head 123 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 2: to the homepage of our website, Million Praying Moms dot 124 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:02,839 Speaker 2: com to find out more and use the code book 125 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,719 Speaker 2: Club twenty for twenty percent off your order from our 126 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 2: mom shop. Until next time, friends, the Lord bless you 127 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 2: and keep you. Make his face shine upon you, and 128 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 2: be gracious to you. May the Lord look with favor 129 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:21,080 Speaker 2: on you and give you peace.