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A weekly podcast from Fellowship designed to encourage and equip parents as they disciple their children in everyday life.
Welcome to the Seed Podcast through Fellowship Bible Church. This devotional was created to encourage and equip parents as they disciple their children in the everyday moments of life. Our vision is to see every generation in the family following Jesus together. We believe God has entrusted parents with the incredible privilege and responsibility of being the primary disciple makers in their children's lives.
Clayton:And where we get this from is first Corinthians three six where Paul gives us a beautiful picture of discipleship where he says, I planted Apollos water, but God gave the growth. And our prayer is that these weekly devotionals would just simply refresh your soul, encourage your heart through the word of God, and remind you that while we faithfully plant and water, God alone is the one who gives the growth. We are here today on another Tuesday morning with the honorable, the venerable Caleb Ezzell, who's going to lead us in What's up? In our devotional today. And so you have little baby girl already, and there is another one on the way.
Caleb:On the way in November.
Clayton:November. Wow. We love that. Hey, I'm gonna pray, and then Caleb is going to lead us in our devotional. So wherever you are, whether it's early in the morning, on your way to work, or even over lunch, would you just pause for a moment to pray with us?
Clayton:So Lord Jesus, we ask for you to move in our hearts right now. Wherever we are, Lord, would we, have ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart that would be receptive to your word. Right now, wherever you are, would you take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to move in your heart for the Holy Spirit to stir your affections for the Lord. And it's in Jesus, the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Clayton:Amen. Caleb, take it away, my guy.
Caleb:Alright, guys. Hey. Thank you for asking me to join in on the fun of The Seed Podcast. It's a joy of mine to serve quietly behind the scenes of this podcast doing the production and all of those things. So I feel honored to share some good news with you guys this morning.
Caleb:So, anyways, I'm a fairly new parent, as Clayton said. My wife, Emily, and I have a daughter who's about 16 old. We have one child with Jesus, and we have a baby boy coming in November. Okay? Just over a month.
Caleb:So we're we're super excited for that right now. Trying to figure out how we're gonna go from one to two while also working full time is the challenge that we have at hand. So if anyone has advice, feel free to hit me up But on that's besides the point, guys. I wanna talk to you guys about weakness in parenting. Wanna talk to you about suffering.
Caleb:Okay? Super encouraging this morning. I think it's it's not a secret that parenting is already difficult when things are normal, but but I wanna talk about how the Lord meets us when we suffer loss. And so I'm gonna share the story of our second baby. And so earlier this year, Emily, my wife, was scheduled to work the entire weekend.
Caleb:She is an ER nurse, and so this happens pretty frequently where she works three days in a row, taking taking up the entire weekend. Well, on Valentine's Day of of this year, while she was at work, she started texting me that she was she was worried that she might be having a miscarriage. You know, this is something that you always worry about when you have a kid. And so I'm at home with my daughter just hanging out with her thinking, no way. Right?
Caleb:This this isn't... That's not happening to us. And and she's having some concerning symptoms, and so, of course, I prayed. I asked the Lord for her health, for the baby, for Emily. We had experienced some similar ish symptoms early on with with Eleanor, so I wasn't super concerned.
Caleb:So we prayed, and then Emily went on with her day at work. But then a couple hours later, Emily called me during her lunch break, started to explain how the symptoms were getting much worse, honestly, more severe. She was crying sitting in her car during her lunch, and and she said she's pretty sure we're gonna lose our baby. And so, of course, I'm I'm so much more concerned at this point. Like, what do I need to do?
Caleb:Do need to come there? What what what do we have going on? And, again, I'm praying, inviting the Lord into the situation, asking for healing, or at least for some clarity on exactly what's happening. And on her way back into work, into the hospital, her her boss was gracious enough to encourage her to to leave work in the middle of her shift to go to the doctor's office, and where she eventually was seen by a provider, and a couple of hours later, we lost our second child to a miscarriage. And, guys, in that moment, all I can think is, now why did this have to happen?
Caleb:K. I'm thinking, God, what are you doing? Like, I had plans for that child. I was planning on discipling that child. I wanted to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Caleb:Like, I had really good plans for this child. Like, I wasn't gonna leave them astray. No. I was gonna lead them towards you, but now that child is dead. It's gone.
Caleb:It's with Jesus, and so there's some comfort knowing that I'll I'll get to see my second child someday. That's for sure. But but that's not enough to take away the pain and sorrow that I feel right now. And so I share this not to say, hey. Woe is me.
Caleb:I I don't wanna play the victim at all. I get it. We live in a broken world. Yes. I know all of the right theological things to say in a situation of suffering, but none of those things will bring our baby back.
Caleb:And so needless to say, guys, this has been a hard year for my family. It's been a really hard year. There's joy and sorrow at the same time as we get to welcome another baby, but for right now, this is our weakness. This is our suffering. This is my thing right now.
Caleb:And so it sucks. I'll be honest. And I hope that in my sharing this, you would know that if there is something in your life that feels like this does for me and my wife and my family, that that you would know that you're not alone. And so now in the midst of all the pain and heartache, I wanna share with you a few verses from God's word that I think are unbelievably encouraging or at least have been for me, and it's second Corinthians 12 verses seven through 10. And so for context, this is the apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth for for the second time, and it's unlike first Corinthians, which is more instruction.
Caleb:This letter Paul is... Seems to be sharing more of his heart as he walks through some challenges specifically in this chapter. And so in verse... In the first six verses of this chapter, he talks about an incredible spiritual experience where he's taken up to the third heaven. Right?
Caleb:He shares it carefully so he doesn't come off come off across boastful. And so we don't have time to dive into what that might be, but just know that it was awesome. Okay? This thing that Paul is experiencing is awesome. He would wanna tell you would wanna tell everyone about it if you were experiencing this.
Caleb:So he knows it's unique experience. Most other Christians don't get to experience what Paul got to experience, and so he's being humble about it. And so our verses are a continuation of what he's already been talking about. So And starting at verse seven, God's word says this, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, these visions that God has shown him, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to to keep me from becoming conceited. And Paul says, three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
Caleb:And this is God saying, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. And so Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And so remember that before this, Paul's talking about how he had some some unreal visions, revelations from God.
Caleb:And he says that on the off chance that he gets super prideful about his epic spiritual experience, a thorn was given to him in the flesh. And so we have to ask the question, what is this thorn that we're talking about? Well, we don't actually know. We don't actually know what this thorn is. Paul doesn't tell us.
Caleb:But from the research that I've done, from what I've looked at, most... It's most widely agreed upon that this is some kind of physical ailment. Right? Something that's hurting Paul. Okay?
Caleb:And I think Paul is vague on purpose, to be honest, so that we can relate to him. Like, we don't necessarily need to be experiencing the exact same thing to know that Paul was experiencing weakness or pain. And so Paul's clearly going through suffering, and he's brought to a place of humility by this thorn in his flesh. And so so much so to the point that he's pleaded with God three different times to take this thorn away from him. So he's pleading with God.
Caleb:He's at the point of complete desperation. Okay? He just wants relief from his suffering. It seems that God just isn't gonna answer that prayer that Paul's been praying. But then listen to the Lord's response.
Caleb:I love this. Okay? He says, my grace is sufficient for you, for your... For my power is made perfect in weakness. Okay?
Caleb:Not in strength, but in weakness. And God reminds Paul that if he is the... Paul that he has the grace of God, he has all he needs. Okay? So parents, this is so good for us.
Caleb:If we have the grace of God, we have all that we need in a world that's constantly pushing you towards the perfect life, that's telling you telling you to minimize your pain as much as possible and increase comfort as much as possible. God is saying that he thrives when we're in pain. God res... God's response says that the gospel does its best work in us when we're weak. Like, when we're suffering, the power of God is made perfect, not in strength, not in our works, but in our weakness.
Caleb:And you see this... You see in the kingdom of God, we we do way more for ourselves in surrender than when we try to white knuckle our way through our suffering. And I think this is so cool because this is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. When he was at his weakest, dead on the cross, beaten, mocked, scourged, humiliated, it was then that he won salvation for us. It was at that point that it was finished.
Caleb:And I mean, what kind of savior does that? Well, it's it's one whose power is completed in weakness. Okay? And so as we move towards the end of this devotional, let's let's look at Paul's response. He says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Caleb:So for the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And so we get to this point where Paul isn't just okay with his suffering. He's actually boasting in his suffering. All of the hardships, persecutions, and calamities that he has to go through, he says that he's content, and he's been through a lot of things, shipwrecked multiple times, beaten, all of the things.
Caleb:Okay? But he knows that the power of the gospel works best in his life when he's suffering and reliant on God. And in a year that basically began with immense loss in the form of a miscarriage in my life, this story has been the most comforting to me. Not that God is necessarily going to to take away all my pain or that he's gonna bring my baby back, but that he is with me, and he's using that suffering to work mightily in my heart. And so losing a baby has been really hard.
Caleb:Like, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. And if that's your story, I hope that this can can help you see that you're not alone in your suffering. And I wouldn't even say that I fully processed all of my emotions, like, at all. It's definitely a continual process. But what I do know is that out of all the ways that someone might try to fight comfort in a season like ours, the only way...
Caleb:The only one that truly lasts is is with Jesus. And so I don't know where you run to for comfort, whether it's people, it's food, it's substances, or or or something else, But what I do know is that none of those will care for you the way that Jesus does. None of those will take away your sins. None of those will satisfy the deep longing in your heart. And so, guys, let my story that God is actively writing be proof that there's nothing worthy of putting your hope in except Christ and him crucified.
Clayton:Dude, I did not read your devotional before you did this. Dude, that was really good. Way to go. Way to be honest and vulnerable. And I love that you ended with...
Clayton:In your suffering, you, God can comfort you because this is a God who has also suffered. Yes. Suffered great loss in so many ways and that has been great comfort. So every single week, we wanna take a faithful step in light of the word of God. So, Caleb, what is our faithful step?
Caleb:Yeah. We got a faithful step. It's pretty simple. It's kind of goes exactly with what I just talked about, and it's tell your child about a hard season God has carried you through. Testify of the ways that the Lord has met you in a hard season in your life.
Caleb:Essentially, share a small part of your testimony, whether that was a season of a really difficult sin struggle when you were growing up, maybe that's a loss of a parent for for for you parents who are farther along in life. Whatever it is, just share that hard season that God carried you through, and and use it to point your kids to the fact that the good news of the gospel is that not that God's gonna take away your pain, but that he's going to be present with you and that he does his best work in you. The gospel is the most beautiful when we were when we're suffering. And so use that as an opportunity to teach your kids about the goodness of God's grace in your life.
Clayton:Love that. Love it. Caleb, why you pray us out, and then we'll end.
Caleb:I would love to. Do it. Jesus, God, thank you for your grace that is sufficient in our life. Your grace is enough. Okay?
Caleb:And then remember that song that says your grace is enough over and over again because it is, God. There's nothing else that we need in our life besides your grace, and so I pray for for the parent that is listening to this, that is going through a season of suffering right now, God, that they would realize that your grace is enough, and you're doing a mighty work in their life right now, God. And so, Lord, we just thank you for being present with us in seasons that are hard. We know that you are such a good God. Your goodness is not predicated based off of what's going on in our lives, but what you did on the cross for us, God.
Caleb:And so we're so thankful for that. I pray all these things in your mighty name. Amen.
Clayton:Amen. Hey, parent. Thank you for spending this time with us today. It's a joy and a privilege to come alongside you as you faithfully disciple your children in all of these moments of life, even the really hard ones. Remember, the Lord has entrusted you with this incredible calling.
Clayton:Psalm one twenty seven, they are gifts of the Lord. He has not called you to change the heart of your child. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. He has called you to be faithful in your planting and your watering and pointing your kiddos to Jesus through the ordinary rhythms of everyday life, even the rhythms that... Or the suffering that throw you off of those rhythms.
Caleb:Yeah. Yeah. And so if today's devotional encouraged you, would you consider sharing it with another parent? We all need regular reminders of God's faithfulness, and you never know how he might use a simple invitation to encourage another family. So, guys, thank you for joining us as we open up God's word together each week.
Caleb:We hope you'll come back next week as we continue to be refreshed by scripture, encouraged in our calling, and reminded that God is the one who gives the growth. So until then, keep planting, keep watering, and trust God with the growth.