"beautiful mama" week 1: prayers for pregnancy
I searched online for the most common fears a woman experiences while she's pregnant, and these were within the top 10:
-birth defects
-miscarriage
-labor pain
Those are some incredibly valid fears, honestly.
But those fears have no place in your heart.
You are already going through so much emotionally and physically, the last thing you need is to be burdened with these heavy fears weighing down your heart and consuming your joy of carrying life inside of you!
The Lord did not give you a spirit of fear, but of a sound mind! (2 Timothy 1:7)
It's time to replace those fears with truth.
It's time to, "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)
So, what does Christ say about those fears that you are experiencing?
Birth Defects
78% of women expressed that they were afraid their child would be born with some sort of birth defect. From what I read, that was the number one fear in pregnant women.
Take a deep breath, Mama.
Release that fear, because according to our Savior, your child is fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13-14 says,
"You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
I know that full well."
As an adverb, "fearfully" means "apprehensively, timidly, hesitantly."
But it also means:
Extraordinarily, exceedingly, remarkably, uncommonly, immensely, extremely.
You do not have to be afraid of your child having birth defects, because even if they do, Jesus died on the cross so that you can stand in full confidence declaring that your child is,
extraordinarily, exceedingly, remarkably, uncommonly, immensely, extremely and wonderfully made!
Miscarriage
When we experienced a devastating loss in March of 2019, I clung to these verses:
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
...
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace
and the mountains and the hills
will burst into song before you,"
Isaiah 55:9 & 12
We may never, ever understand why miscarriages happen and the unfair grief that we experience, but we can have full faith that God's ways are higher than our ways and that he is sending us out with joy in our hearts and peace guiding us!
Do not be afraid, Mama.
Let the joy of the Lord be your strength (Psalm 28:7) and let peace lead you (Isaiah 55:12) during this pregnancy. Do not be afraid of loss that hasn't happened, instead rejoice in the life inside of you and find strength and courage every day in our Savior!
Labor Pain
Labor is pretty scary, especially if you've never experienced it before.
Labor can also be intimidating to those who want to have natural births but end up in emergency cesarean section and then you feel like a failure. (We will be addressing labor fears and feelings of failure in exactly 5 weeks, don't worry!)
Take a deep breath.
God gave us the honor and the strength to deliver babies! You are so strong, Mama! The Lord will be your strength! It will be lots of work and preparation and nothing is failure!
Remember, you are at your most vulnerable emotionally and physically during labor. Satan would love nothing more than to discredit you for the work you already did for 9 months and any labor you do. Remind him who's in control of your mind and to remove himself from your heart.
Joshua 1:9,
"Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be frightened or dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."
Psalm 28:7
"The Lord is my strength and my shield;
in him my heart trusts,"
Isaiah 40:31
"But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Stand in the arms of our Lord and let his strength surge from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head!
Mama, do not be afraid of labor pain.
It will be hard work, but since birth God called and prepared you to deliver that baby into this world!
He will give you strength in labor!
Heavenly Father,
We thank you that you did not give us a spirit of fear, but of a sound mind!
May the peace that surpasses all understanding wash over us and consume our every thought.
We stand on the freedom of cross and declare that the fear that Jesus demolished has absolutely no place in our hearts!
We renew our minds to think scripture, not fear.
Scripture says that my baby will be fearfully and wonderfully made and that you are knitting it together inside of my womb. I pray safety and strength over my baby!
Scripture says that your ways are higher than my ways, so I may never understand why miscarriage happens, but I release that fear to you and accept that YOU are sovereign. I will take each day at a time rejoicing in the life inside of me!
Scripture says that you will be my strength when I am weary, that I should not be afraid or dismayed. So Father I lean into you during these next several months and I release the fear of labor pains to you and surrender them at the foot of the cross where Jesus died so that I may find freedom over my mind!
Satan, you have no place in my heart, body or mind ever, but especially not while I am pregnant. I do not accept the lies that you are screaming towards me. I do not accept your strategy to beat my mind into submission of those lies so that you can steal joy away from me. You may have come to steal, kill and destroy my spirit, but not me. Not today, not ever!
Fear, take a knee to my Jesus and surrender to him.
You have no place in my heart.
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