Sing! Rejoice!

God showing us our barrenness and poverty of spirit should be considered a rare privilege; it is a sign of His devotedness and mercy toward us. This creates a pathway for Jesus to do a miracle in our lives if we turn to Him in faith.

4/22/1995

In view of all His suffering… In view of His humiliation… In view of the fact that He bore our transgressions and took our guilt and shame upon Himself and received all the agony of being rejected, seemingly even by God Himself—

“Sing, O barren woman! Sing!”

Don’t be ungrateful for what God has done for you. Rejoice! Forget the fact that you are barren. Understand that if He would give His Son for you, how much more all things! If He would keep that promise, if He would go to that length in order to buy us back and be our Redeemer and our Husband…why should we let little circumstances destroy our hearts, our lives, our joy, and our peace? How dare we!

“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord (Isaiah 54:1).

“Sing! O barren woman.” That is a command. That is not just the beginning of a song; it’s a choice to be made. We can whine, moan, and complain. We can shrink back and curl up. We can lash out because we are “afflicted” and “fiercely assailed.” We can go through many different gyrations based on the fact that we have failed and that it is “all our fault,” or that someone has attacked us, and it is “all their fault.” Whatever it is, there are a lot of reasons why we can shrink back, lash out, whine, complain, moan, or be short of temper, or of patience or love. BUT, God is looking for us to take a much different view.

In view of His mercy, in view of His kindness, and in view of the everlasting blood covenant that He has made through His Son—SING! He did not say, “Sing! O fruitful womb,” but, “Sing, O barren woman!” He said more will be the children of those who have faith, than of those who have a logical path to success. More will be the children of those who in faith decide to worship, sing, and rejoice in spite of their barrenness. Those who seem to have everything going right for them—who seem to have the babies, the successes, the peace, the acceptance and the admiration—have less than those who have FAITH! God said more will be the children of those who have faith in response to the loving kindness of a gracious God for no other reason than that He loves us, and He gave us His Son. His Son took the shame, reproach, guilt, and the penalty of death that we deserved. Now, in view of all of that, “Sing! O barren woman.” If you see that barrenness in your life, you can enlarge the place of your tent and stretch out the tent pegs. You can expect that God will bless you because more will be the children of the desolate woman than of the woman that has a husband, a logical way to produce children.

God really doesn’t mean this to be theoretical. He really wants us to have an ever continuing wellspring of peace, love, joy, forgiveness, longsuffering and kindness that is generated from the inner man. He really wants those things to come out of His heart through the wounds of Jesus. Those things are meant to heal our souls and bring us to a place where we exude resurrection Life despite the fact that we are afflicted, fiercely opposed, or failing in various ways.

While you may be familiar with suffering, you have not experienced pain like Jesus experienced it. He absorbed all the pain, rejection, failure, guilt, and agony on our behalf. He absorbed the wounds that were on His back, in His hands, in His feet, and on His brow. Since He absorbed all of that for us, the only logical conclusion in the Spirit Realm is that regardless of how you may view your barrenness and your circumstances, you must “Sing, O barren woman.” REJOICE for what the Husband has done for you in absorbing all of that agony for you. We really don’t have anything to complain about. It would be dishonoring to our Maker, our Husband, to do anything less than express joy in spite of difficult circumstances. Whether your circumstances are relational difficulties, emotional challenges, financial crises, physical health problems, rejection, or anything you may encounter in your lifetime —find a way to express FAITH and JOY! The thing that honors Jesus is for us to SING to Him from the heart, expressing our love, joy and thanksgiving to Him regardless of whatever “terrible” “injustices” we think are happening to us or around us. He is calling us to sing out of the midst of our barrenness, not just out of our fruitful womb, not just out of things that go right, but out of things that go wrong. “Sing, O barren woman! Rejoice!” God is faithful! He has already proven that, and He is calling us to be that kind of people.

It really is a blessing and a privilege to be able to see yourself the way God sees you, so He can do something really marvelous and special through you and in you to the Father’s Glory. Let yourself be taken all the way down that road. Lift up the light, the love, and the person of His Son—within the Body of Christ and to all the people around you.

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  Sing Barren Woman!