04 Dec You Do Your Part, God Will Do His
Tim Dilena does it again. I really am addicted to every one of His sermons. I listened to this 3x in a row, and again the next day 2 more times….. and then a few more times since then! His sermon is taken from John 11, which is the story about Jesus raising Lazarus up from the dead. I have written on this same topic before when I posted about situations that feel like Dead Ends. What I loved from that story is the reminder that when we feel like we are in a dead end, it isn’t God’s denial.
The context of this story in John 11 is that Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus to come and heal Lazarus, but Jesus waited before acting on their request.
Isn’t that how we sometimes feel? We ask something and we feel like it should be a situation where God should act RIGHT THEN, but instead He tells us to wait? It’s clear that God has his own calendar for us. His ways are better than ours. His timing is better than ours. But, if He loves us, then why would he want to delay? It’s confusing, right? To God, it makes sense. He has access to view the bigger picture. He has our best interest in mind.
God sees something larger than we can see.
At any point, God can bring us a baby. But, the beautiful thing is He waits until our situation gets to the worst possible scenario. In my opinion, being diagnosed with azoospermia is one of the worst fertility diagnosis received. Sure, I’m bias to our situation. We know it takes one sperm and one egg to make a baby, but what do you do when you receive a phone call and are told there are no sperm? There are so many things doctors can do when it comes to female infertility, but male factor is not the same. This doesn’t mean our situation is emotionally harder, because in my opinion, infertility is all as equally as hard, so please don’t take that statement out of context.
The point of saying that is, the Lord waits until we can’t do anything about our situation, because He wants us to come to Him. Sure, we can visit doctors, try medicine, try surgery, try procedures, but none of those will bring us a baby, only God will! He might use those avenues to bless us, but ultimately, He is the creator of life.
God loves us. And those who he loves, He delays. When we are at the very last string on the rope and we decide to let him have ALL control is when God is given glory. If the doctor fixed the situation or if we did, sure we could say “Praise God”, but no one else would be touched by our story. I truly believe in our story God has allowed it to deteriorate as bad as it could to get to show how powerful He really is. When we are pregnant, there will be NO other explanation besides Him. It wasn’t us timing intercourse, tracking ovulation or seeking medical help, because we stopped all of that. The Lord told me to stop trying to control things, that way when we find out we are pregnant, the only explanation is that it is Him! The same God who raised Lazarus from the dead is the same God today who will bring us our baby. All praise, all honor, and all glory be to Him!
We are leaving on Friday for a trip to California. I’m excited to be sharing a few guests posts and 2 giveaways! Hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay tuned!
Elaina Weaver
Posted at 08:34h, 04 DecemberBeautiful post. Thank you for sharing your heart so openly. I’m thankful that you saw my post on Faith’s blog and through that I discovered your blog. Praying for you & your husband to be blessed with a child soon.
Marianne
Posted at 08:37h, 04 DecemberYes yes yes – from a fellow MFI woman 🙂
The best moment I had was when one particular woman at work kept saying “just relax, just relax”. I finally yelled (with tears streaming down my face) “relaxing won’t make my husband make more sperm!”
Also everybody and their brother thinks that once you’ve had a baby with IVF then you’ll suddenly be fertile and have a whoops pregnancy. Sometimes that happens with female factor, pregnancy “balancing out” the hormones. But it does nothing to sperm.
Chelsea
Posted at 09:03h, 04 DecemberI love this! I have been meditating on that scripture SO much recently and will have to listen to that sermon as well! It’s so true – and I always have to remember that His delay often means there is something grander in mind! He has healed sick people before but he had never raised the dead! Thanks for these reminders today! Love! Xoxo!
Erika B.
Posted at 09:10h, 04 DecemberSo good, friend. Truth.
Lisa
Posted at 09:36h, 04 DecemberGreat post. It looks like God has been teaching us some similar things about his perfect timing.
dspence
Posted at 10:14h, 04 DecemberLOVE this post! It has only been in the past one to two years that I’ve begun to really know that God is this personal. That He speaks directly to us in specific ways, asking us to depend on Him and trust Him in ways that are specific for our lives and situation. And that His direction is different for each us while never contradicting Himself. Our God is so good!
Kasey
Posted at 10:59h, 04 DecemberI am definitely going to look for this sermon! Thanks for sharing Caroline!
Amie
Posted at 11:04h, 04 DecemberIt’s like I know this is how it is but having reminders like this makes me put it back at the front of my mind 🙂 I hope you have a safe trip!
Charity
Posted at 11:04h, 04 DecemberLovely reminder Caroline. Delayed but not denied. It have noticed that when so many open doors close for me I would feel hopeless, but them I remember that God wants be sure he gets the glory not the avenues he may use to get me through. Thanks for sharing this!
Kara
Posted at 11:24h, 04 DecemberI’m listening to this sermon now! Love that God will have all the glory when you have your babies because there will be no other explanation 🙂
Mrs. Lost
Posted at 12:37h, 04 DecemberPraying for you! God is in control no matter how you get your baby. And I have Faith that you both will be parents in his time. Your strength is so admiral.
Angela
Posted at 13:08h, 04 DecemberI have always loved that! Delays are not denials. God knows much more than we could begin to imagine… we just have to trust in His plan for us. Easier said than done, but it’s comforting to know we don’t have to control everything. We just have to let go.
Suzanne
Posted at 13:32h, 04 DecemberWhat a beautiful post. I always admire your faith and love for God and how that never waivers. xoxo
Rachel
Posted at 13:54h, 04 DecemberYour faith is just incredible, I quite admire you. I pray that God blesses you with your child soon, and that – no matter your path – you always remember how strong your faith was even in this most difficult issue. Beautiful!
katie
Posted at 17:18h, 04 DecemberIt’s so encouraging reading your optimistic faith. I waver and wonder what God’s plan is in all of this…if it really is a Wait or a No. But I so appreciate your life-giving words. To Mary and Martha, it LOOKED like a no…but it was just a Wait (and see…). Thanks for the encouragement!
Amy
Posted at 17:44h, 04 DecemberI am excited to listen to that sermon! So many times a wait feels like a no and it’s easy to get discouraged, but waiting is an answer to and I’ve learned so much from waiting! I love that Jesus wept for Mary and Martha. The shortest verse in the Bible but it says so much about how much Jesus cares for us. I hope you have the best trip ever! Praying for you friend!
Jojo
Posted at 23:16h, 04 DecemberI always love your post. Your love for God is extremely admirable. Every time I start to feel gloom I come read one of your post. You are a strong admirable woman an I know God will bless you soon.
Emily (eatloveprocreate.blogspot.com)
Posted at 07:00h, 05 DecemberWill have to check out that sermon!
I do think it’s interesting that no matter what a couple is given as a diagnosis, they tend to think the grass is greener somewhere else. It’s funny, but in my mind I WISH it were MFI that we were dealing with. It’s the couples with MFI (and yes even azoospermia) that usually have quicker success with IVF than we’ve had. My hubby is perfectly normal we think, but having “unexplained” from the women’s side in addition to all these other mutliple factors like crappy linings, ovulation disorder, DOR (possible egg quality), etc. It just makes it really hard (and expensive) to nail down what the problem even is and there are so many moving pieces and darts thrown to try to treat it, all the while wondering what’s stopping the process from actually happening. There is not one identifiable problem and it’s maddening! So many women I’ve known with MFI as the only factor, that went on to do IVF were successful on their FIRST attempt, because they KNEW what the problem was. It was one problem with a protocol to treat it. So here I am envious of women with MFI who do IVF and get pregnant, because at least the woman’s body is a reliable vessel and there is known treatment that works!
I realize you are choosing not to do fertility treatments, so this gives you an entirely different viewpoint regarding MFI and a natural conception. You know I totally admire your faith to achieve this! I just wanted to reassure you that the grass is not necessarily greener in the land of numerous sperm and even if there are seemingly “so many more things doctors can do with female infertility,” the road can be just as long and uncertain. Praying for you and Colby always Caroline!
Kari
Posted at 09:50h, 05 DecemberBeautiful post. God’s timing is so perfect. I’m praying He will bless you and your husband with a healthy child…. when the time is right.
I learned a valuable lesson about God’s timing this week myself. I lost my dear, loving grandfather after Thanksgiving. A light bulb came on and I thanked God I did not have a small child to care for during the time I was dealing with the shock, heartache, and stress of losing my loved one so suddenly. I also thanked God that I was not currently pregnant as the stress and emotions I was experiencing would not be healthy for a growing fetus. God’s timing was perfect as always.
Megan Davis
Posted at 13:30h, 05 DecemberPraying for you and Colby! God is bigger than any diagnosis or fertility treatment. He is the one that provides sperm and He is the one that brings a baby. He is calling y’all to lean on Him and trust His timing. While God may delay according to our timeline, He does not deny us from His goodness! Love you lady…have fun in Cakifornia 🙂
Aimee
Posted at 10:14h, 10 DecemberThis is such a beautiful post. “He has access to view the bigger picture. He has our best interest in mind.” So very true. God doesn’t want us to have “good” or even “great” he wants us to have THE BEST! And it’s so often hard to see when our hearts are aching for something. I will continue to pray for you my friend. ♥
Finley
Posted at 06:07h, 11 DecemberAWESOME and AMEN!!! All glory to God for the joys that we will receive one day xxx
I love this too – saving down these words “the Lord waits until we can’t do anything about our situation, because He wants us to come to Him”
Thanks Caroline you always make my thoughts come to sense 😀
Bernard A. Kaigama
Posted at 16:41h, 09 MayIt is spirit lifting and so timely for me.. The Almighty God bless you with more grace to preach the Gospel