Are You Being Robbed?

The emptiest places in America today are the homes! How sad that thousands of women are being robbed of the joy of their homes. Mothers have left their homes in droves because society tells them that it is a place of insignificance, a place where they will come to nothing. This is a lie. The home is meant to be the hub of society. It is meant to be where everything happens from birth to the grave. The home is a nurturing center, a birthing center, an education center, a worship center, a praise center, a cultural development center, a social center, an eating center, a hospitality center, a counseling center, a health center, an industry center, a convalescent center and a garden center! It is a place of life and joy.

Before God gives children to a mother, he first establishes her in a home. Psalm 113:9 MLB says, “He gives the barren wife a home to live in, now the joyous mother of children. Hallelujah!” God loves homes. God first created the man, but before He created the woman, He prepared the garden home for her. He knew that she couldn’t survive without a home. He created her to be a nester. The home is a God-appointed place. It is the place that He has chosen for mothers to raise children. Our society has provided a counterfeit in daycares but they are a poor substitute for the home.

I love the Jerusalem Bible translation of Psalm 113:9 which says, “He enthrones the barren woman in her house.” She doesn’t only exist in her home. She thrives in her home. She is enthroned as the queen.

God spoke through the prophet, “How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob; how lovely are your homes, O Israel!” (Numbers 24:5 NLT) God loved the homes of Israel. But He wasn’t just talking about their physical homes – they were just dark goat-skinned tents in the desert. He was talking about the quality of life inside their homes – the love, joy, peace, fellowship, fun, and unity. The Living Bible translates it, “Oh, the… joys in the homes of Jacob.”

God equates joy with home and parenting. And yet this is often the opposite in homes today. Not only are women being robbed of mothering in the home, but they are also being robbed of joy in their homes. God talks about “houses of joy”.  He speaks of  “the joyful mother.” He describes the “happy father of many children.” (Isaiah 32:13; Psalm 113:9;  127:4-5) Actually this word “happy” in Psalm 127 is a plural word and should actually be translated “How happy” or “Happy, Happy!” It is ultra happiness! Maybe the reason most parents are not experiencing this overflowing happiness is because they choose to limit the arrows to fill their quivers. We notice that the Scripture says that it is the “happy, happy” man who has his quiver full.

The devil is the one who comes to “rob, kill and destroy.” (John 10:10) He hates life and has successfully duped God’s people to limit their families and stop having children. In doing so, he has robbed joy from homes and parents and deprived the world of the godly seed that God wanted to fulfill His purposes. This is the devil’s greatest victory in this hour! I constantly receive emails and letters from grieving women -- women who have been robbed of children. They sterilized when they were younger and are now too old to have children. Or they are trying to find money for a reversal. Or they have had a reversal but still haven’t conceived. Does the devil care about their grieving hearts? No, he is gloating that he has stolen a few more of God’s children.

The devil has also robbed us of our rest. God wants us to live in His rest. He wants us to enjoy rest and peace in our homes. I read this beautiful Scripture recently, “And in their own home, says the Lord, I will give them rest.” (Hosea 12:9 Knox) God has ordained that we will find rest in our own home, not running around everywhere.

But the devil wants to rob us of rest also. He loves to stir up strife. He likes to get us so busy chasing the dollar, careers and materialism that we have no time to pray and meditate. We fill ourselves and our homes with stress and tension. God woos us into rest, but we often refuse, as did Israel. “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. But you would not!” (Isaiah 30:15)

It is time to wake up out of our sleep and become aware of what is being stolen from us. Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:43, “But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.”

Let’s receive the gift of our home that God has given to us. Let’s guard our homes against the robbing, killing and destruction of the enemy of our souls.

 

NANCY CAMPBELL

 

HOME IS BEST

 

Stay, stay at home, my heart and rest;

Home-keeping hearts are happiest,

For those that wander they know not where

Are full of trouble and full of care;

To stay at home is best.

 

Weary and homesick and distressed,

They wander east, they wander west,

And are baffled and beaten and blown about

By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;

To stay at home is best.

 

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;

The bird is safest in its nest,

Over all that flutter their wings and fly

A hawk is hovering in the sky;

To stay at home is best.

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow