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Barren to Beautiful

Why Your Soul Needs Tending in Winter

Why Your Soul Needs Tending in Winter

About This Blog· Soul Care

January, February, and March feel like the awkward puberty months of the year. I just don’t know what to do…
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How God Has Been Moving at Barren to Beautiful

How God Has Been Moving at Barren to Beautiful

About This Blog· Uncategorized

Things have been a little quieter on my blog this month–and I want to share why. Behind the scenes, God…
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About This Blog

About This Blog

About This Blog

The goal of this blog: is that you won’t be barren anymore. What is barrenness? Barrenness: (adj.) – an emptiness…
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Hi, I’m Rebekah Fox.

I was once a barren woman. I had a barren womb, and a very barren soul. But God saw me in my barrenness--and He delivered me. Not only of a barren womb, but a barren soul, too. He opened my eyes to His beauty all around me. And every day, I need Him to do it again, in my heart, and in my spirit. To take me from Barren to Beautiful. Because I am weak, and broken, and sinful, but He--He is beautiful. If the Spirit has led you here, perhaps He wants to take your barrenness away--and birth something more beautiful than you ever imagined.

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I help women struggling with infertility to hope in God and allow Him to transform them from barren to beautiful—on the inside. 🌸
#hopewriter

Rebekah Fox
Ah, the words I most needed to hear this morning—once again—come from God’s Word through the prophet Isaiah! A woe to those who are tempted to trust in FLESH and not SPIRIT. (That’s me!) And a call to return to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. For he, too, is “wise and brings disaster.” 

I love what Alec Motyer writes in his commentary—which has counseled my heart so many mornings, but especially this one:
“The Lord never merely reacts to events as if sprung on him. He has prepared all beforehand is totally master of the situation.”

I encourage you to read Isaiah 31, and see Motyer’s notes here. See if your heart does tremble at the Holy One of Israel. See with what piercing accuracy the word of God penetrates your heart. 

And his final note—the blood of the lamb did not seem like enough for the Angel of death to pass over—but it was. His ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Whatever God says, is true, and right. He alone is God—He is totally master of the situation. More than we could ever know or understand. He is worthy of all trust, all praise, all worship. I remind you, as I remind myself:
Do not rely on the flesh, for what only the Spirit of God can do. 💛
💛 💛
“I invited you, but you did not come.” It see “I invited you, but you did not come.”

It seems like a love letter, sometimes, this book, raw, aching words—though they come from God. What we see here is an invitation and a reproof. I imagine it almost like getting a beautiful wedding invitation, saying “this is what we could have had,” but then at the bottom are the painful words, “…but you were unwilling.” 

You refused to trust me, you refused to come after me, and you frantically panicked and went after other gods—who cannot save you. 

I don’t mean to add anything that’s not there, just pondering this one line out of the whole chapter 30 of Isaiah. I’ve wanted to write this verse at the end of cards and letters, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength…” and just end it there. Except I cannot edit out the very heart of God to fit my nice letter of comfort. The reproof is attached, “But you were unwilling.” These words pierce my heart. 

And I only share them to marvel at the heart of God. To allow His words to be wielded, to let them pierce our hearts. Nothing is sharper than the word of God. And it is good to ponder His word—even when it brings a sorrow, it is a godly sorrow that leads to repentance. It stings sometimes, but we must read the whole counsel of God. We must not gut it of the difficult parts. For in it, God’s heart is exposed to us—and it’s a heart so loving as we’ve never seen in anyone on earth. (Except, in the person of Jesus Christ!) 

Shortly after this, the Lord calls his people back, so tenderly it brings me to tears. What kind of love is this? What kind of God is this? Surely one who is worthy of our whole hearts, and whole lives, and ALL of our trust. 

Let us stay close to His Word, that we may know his heart. Nothing is more piercing or precise for today. He knew what He was doing when He breathed out these living words. We need them. They are life to us—for they lead to HIM. That we may know HIM as He is, and not merely as we think Him to be. 🧡 He is more wonderful than I ever thought, and still far greater than I know. I cannot probe the depths of His heart, and yet, through His word and Spirit, He probes the depths of mine.
Oh, listen to what God says in Isaiah 51:5-6! 
💛 

Lift up your eyes…

“…but my salvation will be forever, 
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”
“…but these are written so that you may believ “…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

Come, Holy Spirit! Come, prepare our hearts for the reality of the things which are to come! Come, shake us awake to your return, that you may find us awake and not asleep. Let us be wise with lamps lit, wicks trimmed, and oil enough to burn through the long hours of darkness. That you may find us hungering and thirsting for You, desperately longing for your coming, waiting and watching, like the watchman waits for the dawn. 

Reflections from John Piper’s precious advent book.
It’s not a mistake. The longings we feel for the It’s not a mistake. The longings we feel for the shadows to be lifted. I think we were created to long for the light. Something inside of us hungers and thirsts for this light. For Jesus. 

This time of year just helps us to see visibly the darkness we often feel—
but it also puts us in position to hope for the dawn of His coming. It makes us more desperate for Him. That’s why I was so comforted this morning when I happened upon this prophecy that Zechariah spoke over his baby boy, John, born after decades of barrenness. His son would prepare the way for Christ, yes, even in the wilderness. It is no mistake that God uses the language He does…oh read this slowly..
drink in the words of God that satisfy the thirsty soul! 

It says:
“because of the tender mercy
of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 
Luke 1:78-79

It’s not just seasonal depression, or a lack of vitamin D. It’s not just a spiritual spin on the grief of this world. No. We were literally made for the Light. We were made to long for Him. To see, and exult and be radiant as we turn our face to the Radiant One. This is the prophecy, and like every word God speaks it will come true, down to the last stroke.

Praise be to God! He will do all that He promised. The Light WILL come. And the Light did come. And He WILL come back. Both are true and coming true, unfolding even as this present darkness marches on. 

“the sunrise shall visit us from on high”

“to give light to those who sit in darkness”

“and in the shadow of death…
To guide our feet into the way of peace.” 

Why?

“Because of the tender mercy of our God.”
Because of Jesus.

Look for Him friends, long for Him. 
For those who wait for the Lord, shall never be put to shame. 

The Light came and is coming back. Indeed, He is already shining. 

And know this, if you live in a place as dark as I do—remember this as you stare out the kitchen window on this gray, dreary winter day—
those who look to Him are radiant, their faces will never be covered with shame.
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