{"id":23807,"date":"2018-09-09T03:30:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T10:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=23807"},"modified":"2018-09-08T15:46:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-08T22:46:42","slug":"september-9-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/09\/09\/september-9-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"September 9, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cBehold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Isaiah 43:19<\/p>\n

Labor Pains<\/h1>\n

For the last couple of months I have been helping an elderly widow, a dear friend, move out of the home she had lived in for close to 60 years into an assisted living facility. Her health is failing and she is no longer able to live alone. She was very distraught and struggled with moving out and selling her home. It was going to be a tremendous change so late in her life.<\/p>\n

We laughed at the idea that she was like a pregnant woman about to give birth and was having severe labor pains. As painful as it was to go through the process of this venture, we acknowledged that God was birthing a new thing in her life that she could look forward to and eventually enjoy.<\/p>\n

Jesus told us that in this world we will have tribulation, but we are to be of good cheer because He has overcome the world (John 16:33b). Whether you are dealing with the recent Carr Fire, having health or financial difficulties, or experiencing relational problems, every one of us will experience \u201clabor pains\u201d at times in our lives. But the Prince of Peace and God of all comfort is here for us, to guide us and to give us a future and a hope.<\/p>\n

Many times when God is birthing something new in our lives, He uses trials or sorrow to test us and to build our faith. I remember Joyce Meyers expressing the \u201clabor pains\u201d this way: \u201cWhen you\u2019re going through a \u2018test\u2019, you have the \u2018moanies\u2019, but at the end you will have a \u2018testimony\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hang in there and be encouraged because \u201c\u2026 we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose\u00a0<\/em>(Romans 8:28). We can look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Hebrews 12:2).<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus, thank You for enduring so much more than mere labor pains on the cross so we could be born again. And thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to abide in us to give us hope and to make a way where there seems to be no way. I have the joy of knowing that You love me and that nothing is too difficult for You! Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-6bZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23808,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23807\/revisions\/23808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}