Sing O barren woman

The Anglican prayer book talks about the benefits of His passion. This partial quote from Isaiah 54:1, follows on the heels of the most vivid Old Testament description of His passion (Isaiah 53). And Isaiah 54 is full of benefits, of promises that we can claim because of his passion. For example, great will be your children’s peace and all your children will be taught of the Lord. Also no weapon formed against you will prosper, and though enemies will gather, this is not from the Lord, so that we have authority over them.

Coming to the title of this post, the barren woman is told to sing while she is still barren. There is a reason she is told to sing, and it is that “… more are the children of the desolate Than the children of the married woman.” In other words the barren woman it is to see and act as if her prayer has already been answered.

The point surely, is that God is not a man that He should lie, and so that when He promises something, then the promise is ours to claim. But it’s not automatic, we have to war for our promise. This involves believing it, claiming it, seeking, knocking being tenacious and reminding Him of what He has told us He will do. This is to act in faith, faith is not passive, it does something. The barren woman is told to enlarge her tent, and to do this before she is even pregnant. This is a real challenge to our faith, it is to mine!

Father, I believe help my unbelief. I cannot do this without You, but I choose to believe and to act as if the promises that You have made to me have actually already been fulfilled. With faithful Abraham, I choose to believe those things that are not, as if they are. I choose to rejoice in Your answer, and I thank You for it, for them. Father, please show me the counterpart to my enlarging my tent. In Jesus Name Amen