He is my Delight

After God created Adam and Eve, His first command to them was “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it….”  But we find that the only thing they were able to produce was sin.  As then, so now.  We are born into this barren wasteland of sin and we add our own barrenness  and our own sin to it.  Inevitably there comes a day when we realize that we are barren and it becomes first troublesome, then heart-breaking and finally unbearable.

Proverbs 30:16 says there are 4 things that are not satisfied and never say “Enough”.  One of those is the barren womb.  I was reminded of Rachel’s agonized cry to Jacob – “Give me children or I die!”

But this is not just the cry of a barren womb.  It is also the cry of the barren life.  Aren’t there those moments when time seems to stand still and you see your life, so much of it foolishly squandered, and you realize that it may be that more of it is behind you than lies ahead of you……and it is barren.  What a panic and mad scramble this can create as we try to dig deeply into every crevice of ourselves to find something, anything that we can offer to the Lord, only to realize that there is nothing – not so much as a crumb.  Our life is barren because we are barren.  We are all in the same barren condition, but we have learned how to not notice that there is no fruit from our lives.  How easy it is to become content with producing that plastic wax-like fruit that is created to display in some sort of centerpiece.  Nice to look at but not suitable to eat.  But at least it is something we can point to as evidence that we are producing something…….

Isaiah 54:1 says “Sing, O barren, you who have not borne”.   Why would a barren woman sing?  Her greatest desire has been withheld from her.  What cause for rejoicing could she have?  But the passage continues “for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.”   We labor so diligently to be fruitful, striving, trying, working….but true fruitfulness can only come out of the admission of our utter barrenness and our dependence upon Another to produce the fruit.

What joy there is in realizing that our barrenness is not the enemy of fruitfulness, but the platform for it!

Hosea 14:8  says “Your fruit is found in Me.”

And thus we come to the conclusion of our study and where else could it conclude but in Christ Himself!  John 15:4-5, 8

Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing……by this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.

Shall we remain contented in this unnatural state of barrenness when Christ has made the promise of much fruit, and such fruit that is pleasing to the Father?  Oh will we not come to that holy place of abiding communion with Jesus, where we have realized that all we can offer Him is our barrenness, but also that He is able and so very, very willing to produce lasting and God glorifying fruit in us.

Let the barren who trust in Christ rejoice, for the fruit of His life in us is guaranteed.