Delayed pregnancy or infertility-lack of children?

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Delayed pregnancy/fertility arises either in the form of long periods of infertility or childlessness. Known cases of infertility are demonstrated in the examples listed below:

• Abraham and Sarah

• Isaac and Rebecca

• Jacob and Rachel

• Manoah and wife

• Elcana and Ana

• Zacarías and Isabel, etc.

The speed at which delayed pregnancy or fertility catch many women off guard is becoming alarming. Many marriages in our land today have been destroyed due to perceived childlessness or infertility. Couples run from one herbalist, spiritualist or hospital to another in search of babies. It can tear families apart and has led to polygamous situations. Some even end up on bar beaches where mermaid spirits await some sleepless nights. They are willing to do anything in cash or in kind to achieve their heart’s desire. As such, they are often ripped off, maimed, and killed. The questions that arise due to this situation are:

• Should today’s childless couples simply pray for babies?

• Whose fault is it?

• Is it caused by God or is God aware of this situation?

• Why did God allow Satan to make this happen to us?

• Will we ever conceive?

An attempt will be made to answer these questions towards the end of this article. Some people have also turned to some medical knowledge like in vitro fertilization which helps some childless couples to conceive. Some people have considered delayed pregnancy or childlessness as God’s punishment for sin.

2.0 UNDERSTANDING THE FACTS ABOUT DELAYED FERTILITY

God can work through many means to call us to faith, but it is wrong to interpret childlessness as a curse.

Children are gifts that come from God if we ask them to. The answer may come from a child of your own, a child to adopt, a child ranger, or a group of children in the neighborhood or at a church. Infertility can present a couple with an urgent crisis of faith. Not being able to have children raises profound questions about the purpose of a marriage, the worth of spouses, and their sense of belonging to the Christian community.

Why do couples get married? Couples marry to enjoy sex, procreate (have children) and have life partners. The purpose of marriage is not just for procreation. So, if there is a problem of childlessness or infertility or delayed pregnancy, the marriage is supposed to hold even for the other purposes of the contract. But for most Christians today, the opposite is the case. For them, childlessness can seem to refine their relationship with God, since God expects his followers to be like Christ and this sometimes involves pain. Recognizing our ultimate goal of becoming more like Christ reminds us that marriage and having children are not our only purposes in life. Having children is not our only purpose in life. Some atrocities have been and continue to be committed by some couples of children today:

• Sarah took matters into her own hands by offering Hagar to Abraham. She had trouble believing in God’s promises and waiting on the Lord.

Likewise, some of us encourage our husbands to marry second wives (Gen. 16:1-14) in order to have children at all costs. This topic will be fully discussed in my next presentation on DIVORCE AMONG CHRISTIANS in subsequent issues of this magazine.

In the Old Testament, a girl-woman was considered a failure and was a social embarrassment to her husband. The case remains the same for today’s woman. Children are a very important part of the economic structure of society, a source of work for the family because they care for elderly parents. Some were forced to give their maids to their husbands or to marry other wives.

Husbands were allowed to divorce barren women. These women are broken from shedding tears at night. Things haven’t really changed since then.

3.0: TYPICAL CASES OF LATE FERTILITY

Several couples in the Bible endured long periods of infertility before finally having children:

• Abraham and Sarah stayed seventy-five (75) years after their marriage before having Isaac (Gen. 16:1-4; 21:1-7).

• Isaac and Rebekah stayed twenty (20) years before having Esau and Jacob, father of Israel (Gen. 25: 19 – 26).

• Jacob and Rachael waited eight (8) years before having Joseph, who became the ruler of Israel (Gen. 29:31-30:24).

• Manoah and his wife spent several years before getting Samson, who became a judge in Israel (Judges 13).

• Elkanah and Anna spent several years before giving birth to Samuel, who became a prophet in Israel (1. Sam. 1).

• Zacharias and Elizabeth also spent several years before the arrival of John the Baptists, the forerunner of Jesus Christ (Luke.1).

If the case of Zacharias and Elizabeth is properly approached, where both were pious people, careful to obey all the laws of God both in spirit and in letter, of priestly origin, of the temple service body and elderly but childless. We may carefully conclude with David that children are gifts and a blessing from God, but childlessness is not a curse but rather God’s inability to bestow even gifts on couples (Ps. 127:3). So many cases like the ones mentioned above are with us in our various scholarship centers and the longest cases have been replaced by adopted children.

4.0: SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED

There is a need to answer some of the questions childless couples are asking and some answers are provided here as additional insights:

A. Should couples with children today simply pray for babies?

Yes. Just pray believing that God will answer your prayers. Children are a gift from God and it is only God who can grant that gift to whom He decides and at His will (Rom. 9: 15-16; Exo. 33:19). Those who preceded us only prayed in faith and received their gifts (Gen. 15:7-8).

b. Whose fault is it?

It is not anyone’s fault, especially if the relationship between you and your God is cordial and between true friends. So, the fault may lie with the enemy and if childless couples understand this, his duty will be to wrest his gifts from Satan under his control (Matt. 11:12).

vs. Is it caused by God or is God aware of this situation?

God is aware of the situation and has allowed it to happen so that the couple’s faith can be tested. After all, Abraham was tested and Zacharias and Elizabeth were equally tested. So why not you? (Luke 1:25).

d. Why did God allow Satan to pass this on to us?

As mentioned in the body of the writing, there was no instance of a barren, infertile, or childless woman in the Bible, except for David’s wife: Michal, Saul’s daughter, who was cursed by the husband for mocking or mocking him. husband while praying and dancing. to God (2 Samuel 6:16-23).

my. Will we ever conceive?

Yes. The couple of children must conceive as others before conceiving them. The word of God is always new in our midst. There will never be a barren or infertile woman among us (Deut. 7:14; Gen. 18:14).

The writer was a victim of fertility for seven (7) good years and when God’s time/decision came to give us the free gift, we had a jumping baby (a complete and well designed gift that made us forget the past plague years of lobsters, a perfect gift without any defect). Throughout the long period of infertility, we resign ourselves to God, trusting in his supremacy and promising to give us that gift. But we never give up praying and fasting to stop and reduce the power of Stan and his demons using him as agents of torment to deny us God’s blessings and create unhappiness in our marriage. After all this, and when God’s time came, we had a baby like Sara.

5.0: CONCLUSION

We must realize that delayed pregnancy/fertility is not the same as infertility or sterility, but many couples due to ignorance or lack of patience rename it as infertility or lack of children. Remember that all the women mentioned in the Bible, namely Hannah, Sarah, Rachel, Elizabeth, Rebekah, and Manoah’s wife, after all, had children of their own. Except for David’s wife (Michal/Saul’s daughter), whose case was a curse, there was no case of an infertile woman in the Bible.

When a situation such as delayed pregnancy occurs in our families, we often ask “whose fault is it?” and “why did God let this happen to me?” But, Paul had a similar case in 2 Cor. 12:7-9 and God who was aware of the situation replied: “My grace is enough for you.” From then on, Paul never spoke of the problem again. In such situations, the first thing to understand is that God has allowed it but has not caused it. If we do not find these theses and if those who preceded us found them, how can we speak of the goodness of God to those around us? Remember that if there is no proof, there will be no testimony in our lives.

Anyone who wants to become like Christ must be ready to suffer pain. If we acknowledge our supreme pains of becoming like Christ, we will remember that marriage and procreation are not our true purpose of creation. Having children will not allow us to make Heaven or reach maturity in Christ. Therefore, our pursuit of children at all costs should not be with the emphasis shown by those who are of the world.

Once childlessness or late pregnancy is accepted as part of a couple’s life struggle, the childlessness grievance must have run its course, and as such, the couple begins to meet the needs of their environment, which until now had gone unnoticed. They can surrender their sense of longing for children to God. They may help in churches and fellowship centers as church teachers, counselors, youth workers, friends, and confidants.

Finally, childless couples need to resign themselves to the faith and trust completely in God. Furthermore, the need to always be joyful in all situations must be re-emphasized here (Philippians 4:4-6), since obstacles are only overcome by those who are joyful in the Lord. Let us resolve to carry God’s cross the way it is provided for us and also receive his troubles the way we receive his gifts upon us (Matthew 16:24; Mark 10:28-30).