PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 77 – THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD (PT 10)
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
Episode 77 - THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD- PART 10
Rocky Barrett: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello ladies. We are continuing our series, The Glory of Womanhood and we’re on a new point today.
Today we’re going to be talking about GLORYING IN OUR TRIBULATIONS. Wow, now that doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? But I think it’s something that we need to talk about because we’ve been talking about the glory of motherhood and the glory of our homes and the glory of even breastfeeding.
I know that many of you have faced problems and difficulties as you mother and train your children. It’s just not all a piece of cake! It doesn’t always go smoothly. Some of you face difficulties. Some of you have children with physical problems or even neurological problems.
You’ve got lots of challenges and you’re saying to yourself, “Where do you get the glory in all this?”
Once again, lovely ladies, we’ve got to come back to the Word, the Word of God, because that gives us our comfort and our answers. As we come to the Word, we can see how we are able to cope with life, cope with our difficulties, cope with our trials, and cope with our challenges because not one of us are exempt. Every one of us faces them in different ways and in different circumstances. We all face them because life isn’t perfect.
Whatever you are going through today, I want you to be encouraged as we go into the Word.
Let’s start with Romans chapter 5. You will notice that in every podcast I am taking you into the Word. I’m not just making up the things to tell you. I’m speaking to you from a foundation of the Word of God.
Now in Romans 5:2-5 we read: “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we GLORY in tribulations also . . ..”
Oh goodness me, there it is, ladies, in black and white. Paul is writing and he says we GLORY in tribulations.
Wow, we actually rejoice and praise the Lord even in tribulations?
“ . . . Knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
And so, dear ladies, somehow, we must come into a new mindset, don’t we? We usually complain in our tribulations. We are usually miserable in our tribulations.
But Paul’s confession was that we GLORY in our tribulations because we know that God is doing something bigger.
As we trust the Lord in our tribulations, God works things in our hearts.
As it says, He works patience in our hearts. He works hope in our hearts. He fills us with His love even in the midst of difficult relationships.
We’ve got to just let God do it.
We go over to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. I’m going to read it to you and as I read the Word, lovely ladies, just drink it in because the Word will minister not just to your mind, but it will go down into your spirit.
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment . . ..”
Ladies, I know that sometimes you think your affliction is heavy. Oh, it is weighing you down and it feels too much for you. But you see, what we have to do is, we have got to put our trials and afflictions on God’s scales. Now when we put them down on our scales, on our side, oh this trial, oh it’s so heavy! The scales weigh right down.
But then we put it on God’s side, and we see what it is doing for us. We’re going to see more as we read this Scripture. We’re going to see how God’s scales make our light affliction go right up and down comes God’s side.
So we’ll see about that as we go on!
“Our light affliction is but for a moment.” Sometimes we think it is going to go on and on and on and on and oh, when will we get through this? In the eyes of eternity it is but for a moment.
Now get ready to look at this: we are going to see five adjectives. I’ve often told you, look for adjectives in God’s Word. God’s Word is extravagant. It is filled with adjectives because not one word is enough to describe what God is trying to say to us.
Now He uses five. Look at them:
“ . . . Worketh for us a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and ETERNAL WEIGHT of glory . . .”
Oh ladies, do you get it?
You see, our light affliction, which we think is so heavy, weighing us down, it’s but for a moment, but we feel it’s just never ending.
Then we put it on God’s scales. We look at it in the eyes of eternity and God says it’s (and watch the scales go down as we say the words) working for us a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and ETERNAL WEIGHT of G L O R Y!
You see, God is working in us that which will prepare us for the eternal realm because this life is preparation for eternity.
In eternity we don’t have any more chance for preparing. We have no more chance of learning how to overcome evil.
It’s only in this life we have opportunity to learn how to overcome evil and how to overcome and stay on top of our trials.
I know some of you can be going through such hurtful trials. You’ve been hurt. You’ve been cut off. Other people have abused you, even in your family, and it’s so hurtful. It’s so hard to get over. It’s weighing you down.
But dear ladies, don’t let it. We don’t have to let our problems overtake us.
In this life we’re learning how to overcome as we look to Christ.
We say, “Oh God, I don’t know how to get through this, but I give it to You. I thank You that You are in control and You are working it out for my good.” For He has promised that He is working everything out for good to those that love Him.
Yes, He is working it out. We can trust Him. We don’t have to work it all out ourselves.
God is not only going to work it out here. He’s not only going to work it out in us so that we come out stronger. He is working for us this great glory—a FAR MORE EXCEEDING and ETERNAL WEIGHT of G L O R Y that we will receive in the eternal realm if we are overcomers.
Isn’t this exciting? So praise the Lord when you have things to overcome because it is the overcomers who receive the rewards. Revelation tells us that it is the overcomers who receive the crowns. Even the martyrs will receive the crowns.
I think of the persecuted church (because we have such a burden to pray for our brothers and sisters who are in prison for their faith) who are being tortured for their faith; who are cold, who are hungry, who have been torn apart from families, and who are going through trials that we could not even imagine.
Here we have our few trials and we complain and we’re miserable and go on about them. We know nothing, nothing of persecution and torture and pain like they are going through. As I think of them, I think, “Wow, they are actually going to get rewards as they are trusting in God and overcoming in their situations. What am I going to get?”
I mean, I think the more that we have to face the more reward we will have in eternity.
We don’t have to think, “Oh why should I have to go through this?”
No, as we trust God in it, He is working out such a great reward for us because the Bible says that we’re going to be rewarded for everything that we have done in the body, that which is good and that which is bad. Everything will be rewarded (1 Corinthians 3:13).
I think of that passage in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter.
There in Hebrews 11:33, 34 it’s talking about these great men of faith: “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword [and listen to the next words], out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”
These great warriors, lovely ladies, did not start out strong. They started out weak.
“Out of weakness were made strong.”
We are like that. So often we begin weak in our trials. We begin, “Poor me,” and we get into self-pity. We groan and we complain, “Poor me.”
But as we get into the Word and we learn that, yes, we can trust God, we can learn to be over comers.
As we put it in God’s hands, and we trust Him, He works in us and we become stronger. We realize that Yes! God got me through this. God did it. We become stronger in faith. The next time we face a trial we know, “Yes, God’s got this in control.
“I’ve got to suffer this, and I’ve got to go through this, but I’m not coming under it. I’m living with God in this. I’m sitting with Christ at the right hand of the Father in the heavenlies with my enemies subdued under me ( Ephesians 2:6). This is where I am in Christ and this is where I’m going to go through my trial, NOT UNDER IT BUT OVER IT in Christ and Christ in me.
We get stronger and we wax valiant in the fight. The more challenges we face in this fight of faith and in this life that we live, the stronger we get and the more valiant we become and the more we learn how to overcome.
We need these trials, don’t we, to learn how to overcome? So you can rejoice! Amen?
Let’s go, shall we, to 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. I know you know this passage but it’s good to read it again.
Paul is writing: “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Don’t despair when you feel weak, dear mother. Know that God is your strength, and, in your weakness, He will show you His strength.
Trust in His strength. Confess it. Say, “Oh thank You Lord, You are my strength. You are my shield, You are my buckler, You are my rock, You are the One in Whom I trust.”
Change your confession from, “Oh poor me, I don’t know how to get through this trial” into, “Thank You Lord. I thank You that You are in control and I can trust You.”
I want to take you to Isaiah 43:2: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
In this wonderful promise we learn how to change our confession.
It’s so easy to say, “I’m going through the waters. I feel like drowning.” No, that’s not what’s happening here. God says, “When you’re going through the waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU.”
That’s the testimony. So we change our testimony: “Thank You, Lord. You ARE WITH ME. I’m not going through this alone. Thank You Lord, thank You! You are in me, You are with me, You are in front of me, You go behind me, You are all over me. Thank You Lord Jesus!” Amen?
When you’re going through the fire instead of saying, “Oh, I’m going through this fiery trial, oh help me.” No, that’s not your confession. That’s not the testimony here. The Scripture says, that when you walk through the fire; yes, it does not say that you’re not going through it. When you walk through the fire. IN the fire, you are IN the fire, just like those three men were in the fire.
But there were not just those three men, there was a fourth man, “like unto the Son of God” AND HE WAS IN THE FIRE WITH THEM.
They came out of that fire and they didn’t come out with the smell of the fire upon them.
Some people come out of their trials and they still have the smell on them. They say, “Oh, I had to go through this.” They are still complaining even when God has delivered them. No, that’s the smell of the fire.
These men came out and the Bible says that there wasn’t even the smell of the fire upon them. You wouldn’t have even known that they had been in that fiery furnace.
That’s how we come out of our trials: with not even the smell of it on us.
We confess, “Thank You, Lord that even though I am I the fire I am not going to be burned. Hallelujah, thank You, Lord! The enemy can’t burn me, he can’t touch me. You are with me in this fiery furnace. You are with me in this trial. Thank You, Lord Jesus! My trust is in You!”
This is your confession. Can you change your confession? Amen?
Let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities . . ..”
There it is again ladies: glory. GLORY in them.
Wow. We certainly have to change our mindset, don’t we?
“ . . . Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
I love the Amplified Translation. It says: “ . . . So that the power of Christ may completely enfold me . . ..”
When you’re going through these afflictions and trials, God has promised to be with you to completely enfold you in His arms.
The Amplified Classic version says that the: “ . . . power of Christ may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!”
That translation is exactly according to the Greek because the Greek word there is episkēnoō. It literally means “to pitch a tent over me.”
It’s the picture of God residing in the tabernacle in the wilderness. It’s a symbol of perfection and communion. Isn’t it beautiful?
That is the word when it says: “That the power of Christ may rest,” may rest. May pitch a tent over me. He pitches a canopy of protection over me.
Can you claim that next time you’re facing this difficulty or trial?
Say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus. I thank You that in the midst of this difficulty that You are pitching a canopy over me. I thank You that I am not alone. You are with me.”
Amen.
We’re carrying on here. We haven’t finished with 2 Corinthians 12. He says in verse 10: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
Let’s look at some of those things that Paul went through.
Infirmities, that means your weaknesses. Are you going through a weakness in your body? That’s not easy when you are raising a family is it? But look to Christ and look to His healing too.
God is our Healer: “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” He is Jehovah-Rapha. That is Who He is; that is His name.
Claim your healing. Ask your husband to pray for you. It is important for your husband to pray over you because God sees him as your covering, and He hears your husband’s prayers. Get him to lay hands upon you and pray over that area of weakness in your body. Ask for God’s healing power.
Ask for the elders to come. That’s what the Bible says, that if you are sick, ask the elders to come and pray over you (James 5:14-16). Sometimes we forget about that but that’s what the Bible says in James 5:14: “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church: and let them pray over him . . ..”
Reproaches, that means your insults, mistreatments and hurtful speech that people say against you. Those can be hurtful things. They’re not physical things but often they do become physical. Hurtful words and reproaches and things that people say, they can actually become physical. I have seen this happen. I have seen a person go right down in health just because of things and rejection and things that have been spoken over them.
But when that happens to us, we dare not let those words go into us. No, we just give them back.
God shows us the way in 1 Peter 3::9 where it says that when people speak against you, PAY THEM BACK! That’s what we want to do, isn’t it? We want to pay them back.
But the Bible says how to pay them back. He says to PAY THEM BACK WITH A BLESSING.
Isn’t that beautiful? God’s principles are the opposite to how we feel but they always work. So you pay them back with a blessing. You get on your knees and you bless them over and over and over again.
Another translation says: “Retaliate with a blessing.” When you feel like retaliating, instead of retaliating with hurtful words back, you retaliate with a blessing. You learn to overcome in this area too.
In necessities, that means in distresses and in hardships. In this affluent society we don’t really go through many hardships, do we? It seems that we are so affluent that even those who are poor, even those who live from hand to mouth, still have a roof over their heads and still have food to eat and clothing to wear. We do have far more than we need, don’t we?
The other weekend I had to go to Colorado to speak at an Above Rubies retreat and my case didn’t arrive. I thought, “Oh that’s no trouble. It will arrive the next day.”
But it didn’t! In fact, it didn’t arrive the whole weekend and so I had to live with nothing. I had to wear the same clothes that I traveled in every day. The poor people looking at me had to look at me in the same traveling clothes. I didn’t have a thing with me, no changes, not even underwear. I had nothing!
But you know what? I survived. It’s amazing what you can do without.
We just think we need so much, don’t we? We think a lot of things are necessities but even necessities we can do without. We can through those trials.
Persecutions and distresses, that means narrowness of room. When you’re in a tight situation, even there, God is with you.
Pressures, that’s anguish, troubles, and difficulties.
That just about covers all the things we go through, doesn’t it?
Paul said, “Even in all these things I GLORY in them. I TAKE PLEASURE in them that the power of Christ may rest upon me, may pitch a tent over me.”
I think of 1 Peter chapter 4:12: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.”
In other words, when you are going through a fiery trial don’t think it’s strange because it’s a part of life. All of us will face these things at certain times and in different ways.
Verse 13 says: “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory [there is glory again] shall be revealed [that’s in that coming day when we will enter the eternal realm], ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”
Oh if we can just keep eternity in our minds, we can go through anything because it’s only just for a moment. Even our trials here are not forever. They are just for a time and just for a season. We don’t go through them forever, even on this earth.
In eternity we will be free which is the eternal realm.
I think of Job. Sometimes we read Job and we imagine him and think that this is the man who went through all the suffering and Job lived a life of suffering.
No, that was only for a season. At the end of Job we read how God blessed him far above all that he had before and restored everything to him after that season was over.
So suffering is usually for a season. Then glory is an eternity.
“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ . . ..”That is when people speak against you and say hurtful, nasty, and negative things to you. I am sure if you are homeschooling and having more children than the usual two children family that people will say these negative things to you.
What do you do? Do you get upset? No, don’t get upset. Feel sorry for these people who are saying these things. You know, many are only saying them because they’ve been programmed to say them. They’ve been programmed that you don’t have too many children. They’ve been programmed in all these humanistic ways. They don’t know the truth.
God has been revealing His truth to you. He’s been showing you His ways. You can rejoice that you are in His perfect will and so you respond with a smile.
When they say, “Oh goodness, look at all these children, are they all yours?” you can say, “Oh yes, we love children! Don’t you?”
When they say, “Oh you have got a lot on your hands!” you can say, “Yes, my hands are truly filled, they are filled with blessings! We just love blessings, don’t you?” and you put it back on them.
Sometimes you are also reproached for your faith in Jesus Christ. But what does it say? That “ . . . ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”
This is the one “if you are reproached;” that is what we are talking about: “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory [the Holy Spirit of glory. He is the Spirit of glory] and of God resteth upon you . . ..”
Here again it talks about in our difficult times that God rests upon us. But it is a different word. Our last word was episkēnoō, meaning: “He pitches a tent or a canopy over us.”
This word is anapauō and it means: “To refresh.” This time this is the actual meaning of the word that “ . . . spirit of glory and of God resteth upon [will refresh] you . . ..”
Isn’t that beautiful?
Even in your trial, as you look to the Lord, as you trust in Him instead of keeping your eyes on the problem, you put your eyes on the Lord Who is your Strength, Who is your Rock, Who is your Deliverer, that you will find His rest comes on you, His refreshing.
God is able to refresh you even in your trial as you look to Him.
It’s where we keep our eyes. We take our eyes off our problem; yes, the trials are still there. We have to go through them, and we’ve got to face them. Sometimes God doesn’t take them away immediately. Sometimes they just keep there, and it takes some time, but God wants us to learn to trust Him in them.
We put our eyes on Him. Learning to keep your eyes on Him.
What does Isaiah 26:3, 4 say? These two verses are some of my favorite Scriptures: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee . . ..”
This is where we keep our peace, ladies. When we stay our minds on the Lord, we keep our minds on the Lord.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.” There’s another double. It’s a double plural word: “Peace, peace.”
It’s perfect peace because, why? Because “He trusteth in thee.”
He trusts in the Lord. When we trust in Him and keep our eyes stayed upon the Lord, we will know His peace in us, and we will know His refreshing upon us.
“ . . . Because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.”
Ladies, did you get that? God’s strength doesn’t run out.
Our strength runs out but when we get to the end of it ,we go to God because He is everlasting strength and His strength never runs out. Amen?
And so: “ . . . the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”
Dear ladies, as we glory in our tribulations, we glorify God. We bring praise to His glory because people can then see Christ, His life, His peace, His rest, and His joy in us even in the midst of our trials. Amen?
I trust that these Scriptures have been an encouragement to you. I will leave you with one last one, Romans 8:18: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the GLORY which shall be revealed in us.”
Amen?
“Dear Father, We thank You, Lord, that Your glory is not only for when times are good and everything is just going perfect. Lord, You give us Your glory even in the fiery trials and even in the difficult times.
“We pray that You will help us to glory in our tribulations, in our difficulties, knowing that You are working for us a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
“Help us to live in the light of eternity, not getting bogged down with all that we have to go through here but knowing that it is preparing us for that glorious eternal world.
“We thank You in the name of Jesus. AMEN.”