Held by Hope (Psalm 113:9)

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!
– Psalm 113:9

This verse has particular meaning in my family’s life. And some have heard me share this before, but this is the story of our family, of my wife, Heather and I, walking through many years of infertility and longing for children and God not providing in the way we were longing, at least in the timeframe we had in our minds. And so year after year, it was just agonizing to pray. God, you’ve given us a desire for children. Why are you not providing in this way? Please provide in this way. And for those prayers to seemingly not be answered. Well, fast-forward, we have six kids today, four of whom are adopted. God has formed our family in a way we never could have fathomed.

Psalm 113:9 encourages us to cling to hope amid infertility.

I remember after we had adopted our first son. And then Heather, a couple weeks later, found out that she was pregnant. And nine months later we had our second son, and we were there in the hospital room and we read Psalm 113:9. “He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children”. And we just praise God for how he had been faithful all throughout all those years of waiting and how he was providing now in a way we never could have imagined.

I just want to lead us to pray specifically for God’s provision in the lives of everyone whose desire for children has not been fulfilled in the way they hoped, at least not right now. And obviously I can’t guarantee, and God doesn’t guarantee in his Word that every story’s going to end like my family’s story, or I can’t guarantee that God’s going to provide in this way or that way.

But I just think about many people, many couples, as well as many single brothers or sisters who would love to be married and have children. And God’s just not provided to this point in that way. I just want to pray with hope over those brothers and sisters. And I want to encourage all of us to be sensitive to this reality and brothers and sisters all around us. Mother’s days were so hard during those years as we rightly celebrated moms, while also wanting my wife to be a mom, for God to provide in that way.

Psalm 113:9 reminds to place our hope on who God is.

So let’s pray. God, we praise you. Just like Psalm 113:9 says, “Because you give the barren woman a home and make her the joyous mother of children”.God, I praise you for how you’ve done that in my family. I praise you for how you’ve done that in many families that I, we have prayed for. God, we praise you for providing children. We know that children are a gift from you, a heritage from you, a blessing from you. Oh God, particularly in a world where children are oftentimes seen as barriers to career advancement and burdens that are costly or are challenging in this way or that way. And God, while we know in a sense some of those things are true, God, what a blessing that children are from your hand that we gladly walk through challenges to love and care for.

So God, we pray specifically now for people in our lives, likely all around us who have a desire for children that has not been fulfilled in the way they hoped. God, we pray that you would be their sustenance, their strength, their hope, their joy, their life. Lord, that they would hope not in a particular outcome, but they would hope in you, trust in you, and what you are doing in the waiting. God, we pray that you would help them to trust in you in the waiting, to be drawn closer to you. Please keep the adversary from using this particular trial to pull them away from you. God, please draw them closer to you and help them to thrive where they are today. Help them to thrive even now in passing the gospel on to the next generation around them in so many different ways.

This verse reminds us to pray for spiritual children as well.

God help them to thrive in marriage or in singleness for your glory. Lord, you are all wise, you’re all powerful, you’re all loving, you’re all good. So help them to trust in you, to thrive in you today. And God, we pray, we ask for your provision in the days to come, we ask for your provision of children, of marriage. We pray that you would grant desires for your children, please, oh God. As we pray that, we know you’re worthy of our trust with that request. And that you will, not in every way we might think… But that you will work in ways far beyond what we can imagine. We trust in this, oh God. And we praise your name accordingly, all in light of your Word in Psalm 113:9.

And oh God, we pray that you would help us all, all of us to live for spiritual children. Help us all to live to see men, women, children, be brought into your family as your sons and daughters. Help us to live for that today, not to even ultimately live for physical children. We pray for spiritual children, even children in our homes. We long for them to be your children by faith in Jesus.

Prayer for the Hill Brahmin People

And God, we long for all the peoples of the world to be brought into your family. God, we pray specifically today for the Hill Brahmin people of Nepal, for 3.7 million of them know… Known followers of Jesus. God, please, please, please, oh God, bring in children from the Hill Brahmin people. We’re asking you, Father. Save Hill Brahmin men, women, and children, and help us to live for them to be brought into your family. Help us to thrive toward that end. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.