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Faith Responds

No one could argue that we are not living in challenging times.

Like Jochebed, we live in an increasingly hostile culture that has moved from disdain of God and His people, to deliberate targeting. Holding to traditional biblical values is a cause for getting canceled. It can cost our children opportunities.

In this upside-down world, to walk and parent by God's wisdom is to be labeled narrow and dangerous to others. The simple act of speaking out has become risky.

So where do we find the courage of our convictions to hazard those risks? We have just seen that it is an outgrowth of faith. Jochebed demonstrates such faith in action through the choices she makes.

FAITH IN ACTION

First, she was intentionally carrying a child who might be a boy when boys were outlawed by the death penalty. It would have been no easy thing to face the risk of that kind of loss. It took courage for this woman to say yes to God’s call of motherhood - courage to face loss, courage to face danger, courage to face the unknown.

When her baby boy was born, it took courage not to comply with the government’s order to throw him in the river.

Instead, she knowingly defied an earthly king in submission to the King of Kings. Day by day she found the fortitude and “hid him for three months” (Exodus 2:2).

Each day of his care was not as much an act of defiance as it was an act of faith.

There is a difference between courage and bravado, between godly valor and throwing caution to the wind. Jochebed was not reckless. Her faith-fueled courage was the kind that Paul had in caring for his spiritual children.

‌LIKE PAUL

‌In writing to the Corinthian church, Paul was asking them to have the courage to go against the culture and follow Christ no matter the cost. And there was a cost both socially and economically. Yet Paul, their spiritual father, offered himself as an example they could follow, describing his own suffering because he followed Jesus.

He described beatings, shipwrecks, long exhausting journeys, dangers from robbers, from his own people, in cities, deserts, and on the seas.

He told of having to face hunger, sleepless nights, freezing cold, and the crushing weight of caring for all of his spiritual children (2 Corinthians 11:23-29) - what mom can’t relate to those!

Like Jochebed, Paul’s courage to face all those things did not come from himself.

READ

‌Acts 21:13 NLT

But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

Acts 20:22 NLT

And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me...

Acts 23:11 NLT

That night the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well."

REFLECT

Paul kept his eyes on the Lord and was able to face whatever came in caring for his spiritual children. Jochebed believed in the God of her ancestors and was able to get up every day and face whatever came as she cared for her newborn son. Both had to resist giving into fear.

• How are you keeping your eyes continually on the Lord Jesus?
• When you spend time praising Him, praying to Him, and reading His word, how are you strengthened emotionally and spiritually?
• What circumstances are tempting you to fear in your role as a mom?
• What aspect of Jesus' character do you need to focus on to confront that specific fear?

‌‌PRAY‌

Spend a few minutes meditating on the truths you know about God’s character. Praise Him for what you know. Ask Him to help you confront your fears by trusting Him. Ask specifically for the courage to overcome fears and act as God leads.